Copyright, 1916,
By THOMAS Y. CROWELL COMPANY

Thirteenth Thousand

TO MY FRIEND
CHARLES M. SCHWAB
THE MASTER EXECUTIVE, PRODUCER, SALESMAN.

CONTENTS

SELLING THINGS

CHAPTER I
THE MAN WHO CAN SELL THINGS

Soon after Henry Ward Beecher went to Plymouth Church he received a letter from a Western parish, asking him to send them a new pastor. After describing the sort of man they wanted, the letter closed with the following injunction: “Be sure to send us a man who can swim. Our last pastor was drowned while fording the river, on a visit to his parishioners.”

Now, this is the sort of a man that is wanted everywhere, in every line of human activity, the man who can swim, the salesman who can swim, who can sell things, who can go out and get business, the man who can take a message to Garcia, who can bring back the order, the man who can “deliver the goods.”

The whole business world to-day is hunting for the man who can sell things; there is a sign up at every manufacturing establishment, every producing establishment for the man who can market products. There is nobody in greater demand than the efficient salesman, and he is rarely if ever out of a job.

Only a short while ago two companies actually went to law about a salesman who transferred his connection from one to the other, his original employers holding that he had no right to do so, as he was under contract (at a $50,000 salary) to them.

In spite of the fact that thousands of employees are looking for positions, on every hand we see employers looking for somebody who can “deliver the goods”; a salesman who will not say that if conditions were right, if everything were favorable, if it were not for the panic, or some other stumbling block, he could sell the goods. Everywhere employers are looking for some one who can do things, no matter what the conditions may be.

There is no place in salesmanship for the man who waits for orders to come to him. He is simply an order taker, not a salesman. Live men, men with vigorous initiative and lots of pluck and grit, men who can go out and get business are wanted.

It should not be necessary to prove that training is needed for success in salesmanship or in any business. Yet, because men have been compelled for centuries “to learn by their mistakes,” to pick up here and there, by hard knocks, a little knowledge about their work, there has been a prejudice against trying to teach business by sane, scientific methods. Besides, in former times, the working man and the mere merchant were supposed to belong to a low class of society, apart from the noble and the learned, and little attention was given to their needs. A man, too, was believed to be born with a natural aptitude for salesmanship or business building, and this was supposed to be all-sufficient.

To-day there are many men and women attracted by the big profits in salesmanship, who would like to become salesmen and saleswomen, but they feel they have not this natural aptitude to insure permanent success.

It is true that, just as certain men and women are born with natural gifts for music and for art, so certain men and women have, in a high degree, the natural qualities which enable them to succeed in selling either their brain power or merchandise. But while it is true that some people have more natural capacity than others, it is not true to-day, and it was never true in the fine arts, in athletics, or in commercial pursuits, that the untrained man is the equal of the trained man.

Man is always improving Nature, or, if you prefer, he is always helping Nature. Central Park, New York, is more beautiful because the landscape gardener has been helping Nature; the farmer is the reaper of bigger and better crops because he is following the advice of the chemist, who tells him how to fertilize the soil; the Delaware River and Hell Gate have become more easily navigable, because the engineer has removed obstacles which Nature had placed in those waters; Colorado’s arid lands are irrigated, thanks to the skill of the civil engineer; the horticulturist aids Nature by grafting and pruning; the scientist comes to the help of human nature with antiseptic methods in surgery; and the inventor shows Nature how electricity can be put to numberless practical uses.

Let us not fool ourselves; we need to study, we need to be trained for every business in life. And in these days the training by which natural defects are overcome and natural aptitude is developed into effective ability can be obtained by every youth. No matter how great your natural ability in any direction, in order to get the best results, it must be reënforced by this special training.

The untrained man may get results here and there because he has natural ability and unconsciously uses the right methods. The trained man is getting results regularly because he is consistently using the right methods.

Business men no longer attribute a lost sale, where it should have been made, to “hard luck,” but to ignorance of the science of salesmanship.

The “born” salesman is not as much in vogue as formerly. Business is becoming a science, and almost any honest, dead-in-earnest, determined youth can become an expert in it, if he is willing to pay the price.

It is scientific salesmanship to-day, and not luck, that gets the order.

CHAPTER II
TRAINING THE SALESMAN

A student seeking admission to Oberlin College asked its famous president if there was not some way of taking a sort of homeopathic college course, some short-cut by which he could get all the essentials in a few months.

This was the president’s reply: “When the Creator wanted a squash, he created it in six months, but when he wanted an oak, he took a hundred years.”

One of the highest-paid women workers in the world, the foreign buyer for a big department store, owes her position more to thorough training for her work than to any other thing. Between salary and commissions, her income amounts to thirty thousand dollars a year. Speaking of her place in the firm, one of its highest members said to a writer: “We regard Miss Blank as more of a friend than an employee; and she came to us just twenty years ago with her hair in pig-tails, tied with a shoe string; and she was so ill fed and ill clothed we had to pass her over to our house nurse to get her currycombed and scrubbed before we could put her on as a cash girl. Without training, she would probably have dropped back in the gutter as an unfit and a failure. With training, she has become one of the ablest business women in the country.”

There are a thousand pigmy salesmen to one Napoleon salesman; but if you have natural ability for the marketing of any of the great products of the world, all you need to make you a Napoleon salesman is sound training and willingness to work faithfully. With such a foundation for success you will not long be out of a job, or remain in obscurity, for wherever you go, no matter how hard the times, you will see an advertisement for just such a man.

The term “salesmanship” is a very broad one; it covers many fields. The drummer for a boot and shoe house, the insurance agent and manager, the banker and broker, whose business is to dispose of millions of dollars’ worth of stocks and bonds—all these are “salesmen,” trafficking in one kind of goods or another—all form a part of the world’s great system of organized barter.

There are three essentials which must be considered in deciding on salesmanship or any other vocation, namely: taste, talent, and training. The first is, by far, the most important of these essentials, for whatever we have a taste for, we will be interested in; what we really become interested in, we are bound to love, sooner or later, and success comes from loving our work.

To find out whether or not you are cut out for a salesman, you must first analyze the question of your taste and your talent. In this matter, however, it should be borne in mind that human nature, especially in youth, is plastic, and that we can be molded by others, or we can mold ourselves. Even though one has not a strong taste, naturally, or a decided talent for salesmanship, he can acquire both, for even talent, like taste, may be either natural or acquired. By proper training in salesmanship, which means the right kind of reading, observing and listening, and right practicing, we can develop our taste and ability so as to become good salesmen or good saleswomen.

The basic requirements for successful salesmanship are good health, a cheerful disposition, courtesy, tact, resourcefulness, facility of expression, honesty, a firm and unshakable confidence in one’s self, a thorough knowledge of, and confidence in, the goods which one is selling, and ability to close. True cordiality of manner must be reënforced by intelligence and by a ready command of information in regard to the matters in hand. It will be seen that all these things make the man as well as the salesman—when coupled with sincerity and highmindedness, they can’t but bring success in any career.

The foundation for salesmanship can hardly be laid too early. The youth who uses his spare time when at school, in vacation season, and out of business hours, in acquiring the art of salesmanship will gain power to climb up in the world that cannot be obtained so readily by any other means.

Fortunate is the young man who has received the right kind of business training. No matter what his occupation or profession, such training will make him a more efficient worker. Many youths have had fathers whose experience and advice have been valuable to them. Others have been favored by getting into firms of high caliber. As a result they have been in a splendid environment during their most formative years, and in so far have had an inestimable advantage in success training.

Many people have the impression that almost anybody can be a salesman, and that salesmanship doesn’t require much, if any, special training. The young man who starts out to sell things on this supposition will soon find out his mistake. If salesmanship is to be your vocation you cannot afford to take any such superficial view of its requirements. You cannot afford to botch your life. You cannot afford a little, picayune career as a salesman, with a little salary and no outlook. If salesmanship is worth giving your life to, it is worth very serious and very profound and scientific preparation and training.

I know a physician, a splendid fellow, who studied medicine in a small, country medical school, where there was very little material, and practically no opportunity for hospital work. In fact, during his years of preparation his experience outside of medical books was very meager. Since getting his M. D. diploma this man has been a very hard worker and has managed to get a fair living, but he is much handicapped in his chance to make a name in his profession. He has a fine mind, however, and if he had gone to the Harvard Medical School in Boston, or to one of the other great medical schools where there is an abundance of material for observation and facilities for practice in the hospitals and clinics, he would have learned more in six months, outside of what he gathered from books and lectures, than he learned in all of his course in the country medical schools. His poor training has condemned him to a mediocre success, when his natural ability, with a thorough preparation, would have made him a noted physician.

You cannot afford to carry on your life work as an amateur, with improper preparation. You want to be known as an expert, as a man of standing, a man who would be looked up to as an authority, a specialist in his line. To enter on your life work indifferently prepared, half trained, would be like a man going into business without even a common school education, knowing nothing about figures. No matter how naturally able such a man might be, people would take advantage of his ignorance. He would be at the mercy of his bookkeeper and other employees, and of unscrupulous business men. And if he should try to make up for his lack of early training or education, he must do it at a great cost in time and energy.

Successful salesmanship of the highest order requires not only a fine special training, but also a good education and a keen insight into human nature; it also requires resourcefulness, inventiveness and originality. In fact, a salesman who would become a giant in his line, must combine with the art of salesmanship a number of the highest intellectual qualities.

Yet in salesmanship, as in every other vocation, there is not one qualification needed that can not be cultivated by any youth of average ability and intelligence. Success in it, as in every other business and profession, is merely the triumph of the common virtues and ordinary ability.

In salesmanship, as in war, there is offensive and defensive. The trained salesman knows how to attack, and he knows how to defend himself when he is attacked. Everything contained within the covers of this book has for its object the most effective offensive and defensive methods in selling.

CHAPTER III
THE MOST IMPORTANT SUBJECTS OF STUDY

Different authorities agree pretty much on the subjects which must be studied or understood in the making of good salesmen, although they classify in somewhat different ways the headings under which salesmanship should be studied.

Mr. Arthur F. Sheldon, for instance, in his able Course, has divided the knowledge pertaining to scientific salesmanship under four heads: 1, The Salesman; 2, The Goods; 3, The Customer; 4, The Sale. The “Drygoods Economist” has some excellent courses on salesmanship, in which they use almost this identical classification, treating the subject under the four general divisions: 1, The Salesman; 2, The Goods; 3, The Customer; 4, Service. Mr. Charles L. Huff has added to the valuable data on salesmanship a book in which he gives the following five factors as the headings under which the subject of salesmanship should be covered, namely: 1, Price; 2, Quality; 3, Service; 4, Friendship; 5, Presentation.

Every salesman is really teaching the customer something about the goods. He is, so to speak, a teacher of values, or if you prefer, “a business missionary.” In order to teach well he should have these most valuable assets: first, right methods of meeting customer; second, thorough knowledge of self, of goods, of customer and conditions; third, ability to meet competition, both real and imaginary; fourth, helpful habits; fifth, good powers of originating and planning; sixth, a selling talk, or something worth while saying; seventh, properly developed feelings, which will add force to what he says.

In a brief and helpful course on salesmanship “System,” a business magazine, gives great emphasis to the value of dwelling on five buying motives—1, Money; 2, Utility; 3, Caution; 4, Pride; 5, Self-indulgence, or Yielding to Weakness.

If a salesman will keep before his mind these five points, and if he appeals to the human traits they indicate he will become a master in closing deals.

A great many methods are used to-day for rating employees, just as Dun and Bradstreet rate firms. According to Roger W. Babson, there is a Mr. Horner, of Minneapolis, who rates his salesmen and trains them along these lines:

HABITS OF WORK

A final and very vital point to consider is this: Why do salesmen meet opposition?

Mr. Huff, in his very practical and interesting book on salesmanship, has classified under six general heads the causes of opposition. These are: First, Prior Dissatisfaction; Second, General Prejudice; Third, Buyer’s Mood; Fourth, Conservatism; Fifth, Bad Business; Sixth, Personal Dislike for Salesman.

It is up to the salesman to analyze the customer and decide just which of these six points of opposition is causing him to lose business.

Just in the degree that he can locate the exact trouble, and then overcome it in the proper way, will he be able to get the business which may seem at first absolutely beyond him.

Any or all of these six causes of opposition will not overwhelm the master salesman, but the mediocre or indifferent salesman is bound to collapse when confronted with any one of them. And if he does not train himself to meet and overcome opposition he is doomed to failure, or at least to a very poor grade of success—not worthy the name.

Remember, Mr. Salesman, it is always up to you. Develop your brain power, and then use that power for all it is worth.

CHAPTER IV
MAKING A FAVORABLE IMPRESSION

A Washington government official called on me some time ago, and before he had reached my desk I knew he was a man of importance, on an important mission. He had that assured bearing which indicated that he was backed by authority—in this instance the authority of the United States—and the dignity of his bearing and manner commanded my instant respect and attention.

The impression you make as you enter a prospect’s office will greatly influence the manner of your reception. It is imperative to make a favorable first impression, otherwise you will have to spend much valuable time and energy and suffer a great deal of embarrassment in trying to right yourself in your prospect’s estimation, because he will not do business with you until you have made a favorable impression on him.

Some salesmen approach their prospect with such an apologetic, cringing, “excuse me for taking up your valuable time” air, that they give him the idea they are not on a very important mission, and that they are not sure of themselves, that they have not much confidence in the firm they represent or the merchandise they are trying to sell.

Approach the one with whom you expect to do business like a man, without any doubts, without any earmarks of a cringing, crawling or craven disposition. Enter his office as the Washington official entered mine, like a high-class man meeting a high-class man. You will compel attention and respect instantly, as he did.

Your introduction is an entering wedge, your first chance to score a point. If you present a pleasing picture as you enter you will score a strong point. Here is where you must choose the golden mean between cringing and over-boldness. If you approach a man with your hat on, and a cigar or cigarette in your mouth, or still smoking in your fingers; if your breath smells of liquor; if you show that you are not up to physical standard; if there is any evidence of dissipation in your appearance; if you swagger or show any lack of respect, all these things will count against you. If you present an unpleasing picture, if there is anything about you which your prospect does not like; if you bluster, or if you lack dignity; if you do not look him straight in the eye; if there is any evidence of doubt or fear or lack of confidence in yourself, you will at once arouse a prejudice in his mind that will cause him to doubt the story you tell and to look with suspicion at the goods you are trying to sell.

A salesman once entered a business man’s office holding a tooth-pick in his mouth. You may think it was a little thing, but it so prejudiced the would-be customer against him at the start that it made it much more difficult for him even to get a chance to show his samples. The business man in question was very particular in regard to little points of manners, and was himself a model of deportment.

I know of another salesman who makes a most unfortunate first impression because he has no presence whatever, not a particle of dignity; he is timid and morbidly self-conscious, and it takes him some minutes after he has met a stranger to regain his self-possession. To those who know him he is a kindly and genuinely lovable man, but he does not appear to advantage at a first introduction. He is a college graduate, and was so popular and stood so high in his class that he was proposed to represent it at commencement. He was defeated, however, on the plea that he would make such a bad impression on the public that he would not properly represent the class.

Self-possession is an indispensable quality in a salesman. It is natural to the man who has confidence in himself, and without self-confidence it is hard to make a dignified appearance or to make others believe in you.

What you think of yourself will have a great deal to do with what a prospect will think of you, because you will radiate your estimate of yourself. If you have a little seven-by-nine model of a man in your mind you will etch that picture on the mind of your prospect. In approaching a prospect, walk, talk and act not only like a man who believes in himself, but one who also believes in and thoroughly knows his business. When a physician is called into a home in an emergency, no matter how able a man may be at the head of the house, no matter how well educated the mother and children may be, everybody stands aside when he enters. They feel that the doctor is the master of the situation, that he alone knows what to do, and they all defer to him. Everybody follows his directions implicitly.

You should approach a possible customer with something of this professional air, an air of supreme assurance, of confidence in your ability, in your honesty and integrity, confidence in your knowledge of your business. Your professional dignity alone will help to make a good impression, and will win courtesy. It will insure you at least a respectful hearing, and there is your chance to play your part in a masterful manner.

A publisher who has a large number of book agents in the field, advises his men to act, when the servant answers the door bell, as though they were expected and welcome. He tells them, if it is raining to take off their rubbers, if it is muddy or dusty to wipe off their shoes and act as though they expected to go in.

The idea is to make a favorable impression upon the servant first of all, for if they were to behave as though they were not sure they would be admitted, apologizing for making so much trouble and assuming the attitude of asking a favor, they would communicate their doubt to the servant, and would not be likely to gain admittance, not to speak of an audience with the mistress. In short, the carrying of a positive, victorious mental attitude, the radiating of a vigorous expectation of getting a hearing will get you one.

The agent who rings a door bell with a palpitating heart, with a great big doubt in his mind as to whether he ought to do it, and who, when the door is opened, acts as though he were stealing somebody’s valuable time, and had no right to be there at all, will create a prejudice against him before he opens his mouth. And before he gets a chance to plead his cause he will probably find the door closed in his face.

You should seek admission to a house as though you were the bearer of glad tidings, as though you had good news for the family, as though you were conferring a real favor on them by calling their attention to what you have to sell.

Whatever you are selling, whether books or pianos, hardware or drygoods, your manner will largely determine the amount of your sales. There are salesmen who approach prospective customers just as though they not only did not expect an order, but rather expected, if not to get kicked out, at least a polite invitation to get out.

I was in the office of a business man recently, when a man of this stamp came in and crept up to him with a sort of a sheepish expression on his face, as much as to say, “I know I haven’t any right here, but I have come in to ask for a favor, which I feel sure you won’t grant.”

“I don’t suppose you have an order for me to-day, have you?” he said. Of course, the man, without a moment’s hesitation, said, “No.” And the salesman crept out as though he had almost committed a sin by entering at all.

Now, there is something in every manly man which despises this self-depreciating spirit, this false self-effacement, this creeping, cringing, apologizing attitude, which robs one of all dignity and power. If you approach people as though you expected a kick, you are pretty sure to get it. It may come in the form of a gruff refusal, of a snub, or of a polite invitation to get out, but you are likely to get what you invite—a rebuff of some kind.

If you approach a man at all, do it in a brave, vigorous, manly way. Do not ruin your cause by giving him a contemptible picture of you at the very outset. At least let him see that you are self-respecting, manly, that there is nothing of the coward in you. Even if he declines to give you an order, compel him to respect you, to admire you for your dignified, virile bearing. No one cares to do business with a person he cannot help despising, while a man who creates a favorable impression will at least get a hearing.

We recently asked a representative of a big concern how he managed to do so much business with people whom very few salesmen can approach.

“Well,” he said, “I will tell you. One reason is that I never go to a man as though I had no right to. I do not creep into his office and look as though I expected a kick or a rebuff. I walk right straight up to him in the most manly and commanding way possible, for I am bound to make a good impression on him, so that he will remember me pleasantly, even if I do not get an order. The result is that men who are very difficult to approach often give me business they refuse to others because I am not afraid to approach them and to say what I want to say pleasantly, without mincing or cringing or apologizing.”

This man says he has little difficulty in getting into the private offices of the most exclusive business men, presidents of banks, great financiers, high officials of railroads and other representatives of “big business,” and that they are his best customers.

To sum up, your attitude, the spirit you radiate, your personality, will have everything to do with your salesmanship. The impression you make will be a tremendous factor in your sales. For this reason you should never approach a prospect until you feel that you are master of the situation. Then you will carry the conviction and give the impression of mastership, and that is half the battle.

CHAPTER V
THE SELLING TALK OR “PRESENTATION”

Much has been written on the question of a selling talk, and there is no little misunderstanding on this all-important subject. Every one who has “a story to tell” has what may be called “a selling talk”; that is to say, a best way of setting forth what he has in his mind. Some prefer to call it the “presentation.” A “presentation” may consist of a few sentences, or it may consist of a half hour’s talk. Salesmen in many lines cannot prepare a fixed story or address, such as would be given by a statesman addressing a legislative body, or by a clergyman in a sermon, or by an actor giving a monologue, and yet, large numbers of salesmen, through failing to have a simple, clear, carefully worded talk, fail to get a customer interested in their merchandise. The question of a selling talk should be left to the judgment of the sales manager. He will be well qualified, ordinarily, to tell just what this should consist of, and, also, when to make exceptions to the use of a selling talk. Inspiration will not come just when the salesman wants it. Many points get lost in the convolutions of the brain. Too much or too little talk may be indulged in, unless a salesman knows just what he is going to say and how to say it. Do not be misled, however; there are many men who speak poor English, and who do not have what would properly be called a “selling talk,” yet they succeed as salesmen. These men do, however, know the merits of their goods, and they have a peculiar way of putting it up to the customer to judge for himself.

I once saw nearly a thousand dollars’ worth of underwear sold, with scarcely a word spoken. The salesman spread out his goods, and the buyer examined them hastily, but carefully, and made the selection, simply asking by what number the goods were known, and the price. I saw not long ago, about five thousand dollars’ worth of furs (muffs and neck-pieces) bought, with very few words spoken. In both these cases it must be remembered that buyers and sellers were well known to each other; there was mutual confidence; the houses were reliable, and unsatisfactory goods would mean loss of future business, as well as a return of the goods.

There are certain main selling points which can be selected and should be selected for every line of goods. Some of these selling points will be more effective with one class of customers than with another. Here is where the salesman’s judgment comes into play. Let us take the single example of the white goods business. In this line, there are five main selling points which I once heard given by Charles A. Sherman, of Sherman & Sons, leading merchants, of New York. These five points are:

1. Artistic merit of goods, beauty of design, etc.;

2. Intrinsic value;

3. Comparison with rival goods;

4. Degree of conformity to prevailing modes or fashions.

5. Adaptability to buyers’ needs, price, etc.

Around these may be woven a brief or a lengthy talk, according to the needs and the disposition of the customer with whom the salesman is talking. Let your selling talk be direct, natural, and as brief as possible.

The presentation of your proposition involves, principally, a clear, simple and suitable description of your goods. The cleverest salesmen arrange the points in a logical order, working up from the least importance to the strongest.

Always put the question of price off just as long as possible, unless the price is so low that this point alone adds much to the other selling points, as for instance, setting forth the prices in a 5 & 10 cent store, or giving the prices of special bargains.

Be willing to answer all questions and objections made by your customer, but forestall, as far as you can, the objections he is likely to make. You can do this by exerting the power of a strong personality, especially by showing much enthusiasm, which tends to burn up the objections a customer is inclined to make. No matter how positive or how graphic you are in your descriptions, always be natural, otherwise your mannerisms will detract from the effectiveness of your talk.

The best authorities consider it a decided handicap if the customer “turned you down” at the start by a negative answer, or a negative attitude. When you foresee that the customer is about to say, “No,” or to turn away, strive to keep his mind in the balance until you can attract his attention to some new features of your goods, or to some old features, in a new way.

The length of time given to a presentation, will vary with the goods and with the customer. Experience with each particular line, and the advice of your sales manager always should be followed.

On the floor of the Stock Exchange there is no such thing as a presentation, or the getting of favorable attention, in the strict interpretation we give to these words. Men are there alert to give favorable attention to certain securities. They know in advance the strong points of these securities, and when the right price is quoted the decision to buy will come quickly. This holds true in many instances where staple goods are offered at current prices.

CHAPTER VI
THE APPROACH AND EXPRESSION