Frank Butterworth

“ This is part of the salesman’s responsibility to himself and his job, provided he is serious enough about it to figure beyond the weekly pay envelope and to plan each day’s work so that it will serve as a stepping stone to the position of greater responsibility—toward success, which is the goal of every red blooded and clear thinking man and woman in business. The salesman should actually study every piece of advertising matter put out by the store, whether it be a catalogue, sales letter, newspaper announcement or window display card. ”

“ DON’T ARGUE Following the thought of suggesting only positive ideas is the important point to avoid argument with the customer. Argument is negative, and does not serve to get the customer in a buying frame of mind. He may make some statement that is absolutely without foundation concerning quality, make or price. Whatever it may be the salesman can do nothing better to strengthen himself and the reputation of his goods than to give the customer the true facts in the form of confident suggestions rather than sledge-hammer blows of argument. ”

“ A man whose career as a salesman had extended over many years, and who had been unusually successful in his work, was once asked before a large gathering of business men to tell them what great power he considered responsible for his success in selling goods. His reply was the simple and beautiful fact that he learned to love his customers. What he meant, of course, was that he had trained himself to regard each customer and to show him the same consideration and interest as though the customer were his warmest friend. ”

“ He says: “The first duty of the salesman is to smile. A great big smile always wins. Be good natured. No matter how grouchy your customer may be you can rest assured that a pleasant word or two will set him right. Look your customer straight in the eye and convince him that you are at his service. Do this and the sale is yours. Never permit the grouch to get the better of your patience, for it means lost time and ten to one you will not be any good to serve the next customer.” ”

“ Friction among the men and women who make up a business organization is like friction between parts making up a machine. It results in wearing out the parts that are not working properly and it retards the work of the whole machine. Any man in the organization who tries to work alone and in disregard of the other parts of the business machine is bound to cause friction, and as a result of this he will wear himself out and limit the advancement to which he would otherwise be entitled. ”

“ The best the house can do is to make every effort to reduce mistakes to a minimum. In quality of goods and in quality of service there is the possibility of an occasional slip-up, and right here the salesman is called in to show his loyalty and enthusiasm in the face of what might develop to be the loss of profitable business. The weak or unsteady man is bowled over in the face of opposition but the strong man is made better and stronger by it. Every reasonable customer is willing to accept an explanation of the true facts, and is glad to know that he has not purposely been taken advantage of. ”

“ EXAGGERATION Just as it is important for the salesman to develop positive, money-making ideas, it is necessary for him to guard against anything in his selling talk that will result to deaden the customer’s confidence. Lincoln very wisely said, with his original knack of expressing the point so that no one could miss it, that “you can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” ”

“ Provided the salesman is simply to take the order it is true that he does not need to demonstrate or convince. The genuine salesman, however, does more. He will sell the customer the shoe she ought to have. He will probably sell her a more expensive one, or he may sell her two or three pairs, and at the same time have her realize that she is being served best in buying them. This is real salesmanship, and it is only possible of a man who is thoroughly sold on the superior merit of his own goods and his house—who has made the first sale to himself. ”

“ The expert diamond salesman handles a stone with all the tenderness and care of a mother with her child; not because the diamond means more to that salesman than the shoe does to the shoe salesman, but because he understands human nature enough to realize that only in so far as he shows an interest in the stone can he hope to have the customer do so. ”

“ The salesman’s idea may be one to improve the style of advertising or it may be an idea on some improved method of stock arrangement, window display, delivering the goods, or meeting objection on the part of the customer. There are dozens of such opportunities for improvement in every business but they come only to the man who has his net out to catch them. In other words, the salesman must go half way to meet them by taking the trouble to look around with an observing eye and by thinking along the line of improvement, both for himself and the business with which he is associated. ”

“ The salesman would make no effort to hurry such a customer. He would realize that she would get genuine comfort by resting for a minute or two before getting down to business and that she might not even care to think of shoes while resting. Being discouraged, as shown by her expression, she would probably be cheered by a remark and some show of interest in the children. To show an interest would not mean to pry into her personal affairs or to ask a lot of questions, but a kindly word would serve to direct the woman’s thought from her troubles and to put her in a buying frame of mind. ”

“ THE FIELD OF RETAIL SELLING PURPOSE OF THE COURSE The whole idea and purpose of the Training Course for Retail Shoe Salesmen is to supply the means to increase the salesman’s value. [1] The slogan of the Retail Shoe Salesmen’s Institute is the plain truth that “Knowledge Applied is Power.” Knowledge of itself is of no more value than idle steam from the teapot. Harness up the steam so that it may be put to work and it moves the world—it operates your factories, lights your cities, grows your food and keeps you warm. ”

“ The man who is a success at selling realizes that the better knowledge he has of his stock, the greater will be the satisfaction of his trade. He knows every line in the house thoroughly—even the odd pairs he knows by size and width so that when he gets the foot that may be fitted with one of these he can convert the dead or odd pair into cash.
To study the stock means actually to take the time to examine the different qualities and styles, to know the materials of which they are made and to understand why the one shoe sells for twelve dollars as compared with the other at ten. ”

“ GREETING THE CUSTOMER The kind of respect and consideration a gentleman gives to a guest in his own home is the standard by which the successful salesman measures his service to the customer. There is nothing false or artificial in it; simply a genuine effort to please. When reduced to this basis the art of good salesmanship is not a series of cut-and-dry rules to tell the beginner how many steps to take forward when greeting a customer, when to reach up to remove a box from the stock, case, or when and how to accept the customer’s money. ”

“ The salesman’s proper attitude of mind should be that of working along with the customer. He should train himself, as he proceeds with the sale, actually to feel the contact of his own foot in the new shoe as it slips on the customer’s foot. He should experience the satisfaction of the purchaser, who mentally notes that he has just spent, perhaps a considerable part of a week’s pay, in a good cause and with no regrets. He cannot serve the customer and hope steadily to get satisfactory results unless he can transplant 101himself into the customer’s frame of mind. ”

“ The salesman would not be doing himself full justice if he did not make a special effort to determine for his own good whether there had been any part of his selling effort that was weak and that may have been responsible for the customer’s lack of confidence. Perhaps he had misjudged what was wanted in the matter of style or quality or perhaps he had not been positive enough in his efforts. He may have been only lukewarm with the customer who needed to be assisted in making a decision or he may have been too insistent with the man who preferred to do his own deciding. ”

“ APPROPRIATE SELLING TALK “Something for you, mister?” as a part of the selling talk, is many times worse than absolute silence. It is bad because it is as ancient, tattered and torn as the “little old red shawl” itself. It stamps the salesman as being without any originality and it is likely also to bore the customer. Take it for granted that he wants something or else he would not be in the store. Jump right into business and at the same time get the customer on your side. ”

“ On learning that there is no possibility of making a sale, it is for the salesman to suggest, perhaps, that he has shown the principal range of styles and that if there is nothing satisfactory among them the lady might call later and find what she is looking for. The salesman should, of course, offer the usual courtesy extended to customers and should make no intimation of the fact that he does not care to spend further time showing goods. Skillful salesmanship has often been accountable for sales in those cases where there had originally been no intention to buy. ”

“ What we are today is simply a reflection of what we made ourselves during the yesterdays; and next year we shall have to show only what we make of opportunities today. None of us is in business just for a day. The shoe salesman has a future which is, first of all, to make himself a better salesman. Therefore his responsibility today is to put forward everything he has in order to reach the goal he has set. Enthusiasm is the power needed to drive the effort day by day. ”

“ STYLE NOT IN STOCK Another delicate point calling for real salesmanship is that of selling a customer who calls for a shoe that is not in stock. The style, perhaps, may have been one shown in the window. It may have been one of the numbers especially popular in the store. The sizes may be broken and further stock difficult or slow to secure. Although the salesman would likely know all these things at the time the customer mentioned the style wanted, he certainly could not afford to hold up his hands in horror and greet the customer with the sad news, “I don’t think we have your size.” ”

“ The salesman should bear in mind that the customer is not a shoe expert, that the person of average means does not buy a pair more than two or three times a year, and that he actually needs helpful advice and suggestions. By learning, first of all, just what it is the customer has in mind to buy, the salesman, with his knowledge of the stock and of the business, is well able to offer a genuine service. An important point is well brought out above, that a customer, rightly served, is a living advertisement, not alone for the store but also for the man who serves him. ”

“ He should be able to consider himself sitting in the chair, he should look at the shapes and colors submitted, through the eyes of the customer, and he should feel the shoe on his own foot as he adjusts it to the customer’s. Pure imagination, of course, but how else can he successfully work along in the sale with his customer—how else can he hope to work in harmony? ”

“ KEEPING UP STEAM The manager in one of the big stores in the West recently made the statement that the way he and his men keep themselves up to snuff in their enthusiasm and selling effort is to begin each morning as though it were the first morning on the job, with as many new things to learn and to do that day as there were on the first day. To keep up steam means that the man should take an inventory of himself to see what progress he has made or how much better a salesman he is today than he was a week ago or a month or a year ago. ”

“ The salesman of purpose puts into his work the spirit of partnership—the spirit that he is working in the interests of “our” store, of which he is a part. Another man measures the extent of his service according to the idea that his effort 193is entirely for “their” store—and he limits his own progress accordingly. The man of purpose will naturally show that he is capable of handling authority, he will take pleasure in doing his work well and he will steadily move up to the higher plane of usefulness and responsibility. ”

“ The position of the salesman should be somewhere between the buyer and the seller. He owes it to the customer to serve his best interest; to do everything possible to give him every advantage in the bargain. On the other hand, the salesman is the representative of the house that employs him and he is certainly expected to back it up at every turn.
The salesman who takes his job seriously, and such a man is the only one who makes anything out of his job, recognizes this responsibility at once. ”

“ In retail shoe selling it would be rare indeed to find in one sale so many features of poor salesmanship, but it is clear, of course, that the presence of any one of them would operate to reduce the customer’s confidence and satisfaction. 78From the shoe salesman’s own experience he would have realized at once the desirability of greeting the customers cheerfully and of showing an interest in an unusual experience that brought the men in from the street bareheaded. ”