Traveling salesman

“ Occasionally a traveling salesman meets at the hotel or on the train the head of some large house, who is making a trip for special reasons of his own. Such a man is always sure to be affable with every one, but he is especially conciliatory to the salesmen he meets on his route. ”

“ The merchant appreciates the bright salesman whether he does business with him or not and the salesman who is a man will always find welcome under the merchant's roof. Salesmen are the teachers of the merchant, and the merchant knows this. Whenever he is planning to change locations, build a new store, move to some other town, put in a new department, or make any business change whatsoever, it is with traveling men that he consults. ”

“ The time when the traveling man will ram all he can into an order is when the merchant splits his business in the salesman's line, buying the same kind of goods from two or more houses. Then the salesman sells as much as he can, that he may crowd the other man out. But even this is poor policy.
I once took on a new town. My predecessor had been getting only a share of his customer's trade; two others had divided the account with him. I made up my mind to have all of the account or none. The merchant went to my sample room and gave me an order for a bill of hats. ”

“ We will suppose that our traveling man has his headquarters in some big city—New York, Chicago, San Francisco, it does not matter—and that he has several calls to make before he goes out on the road.
There are two kinds of salesmen, those who make only one sale to a customer and those who sell something that has to be renewed periodically. The first sell pianos, real estate, encyclopedias, and so on; the second sell raw materials and supplies. The salesman whom we are to follow is in the second group. ”

“ It is questionable if one traveller could do justice to more than five or six lines and they for obvious reasons should be related to each other, the principal idea being to economize the time and expenses of the one handling them. For example, a representative might carry neckties, shirts, collars, socks, and men’s underwear and hats, or such lines as corsets, stockings, ladies’ underwear and shirt waists might be effectively presented by one salesman. ”

“ We hear a good deal about the live-wire, rapid-fire salesman, who goes out on his initial trip and comes back with a bagful of orders. It must be remembered that ever and always there is the law of compensation to take into consideration. The salesman who bags a lot of orders on the first trip does not get so many the second time. He has colored his picture too highly on the first trip. He has made too many side promises, too many mis-statements, and the customer finds out he cannot be believed, and this smooth article of a salesman is not as welcome in the buyer's office the second trip. ”

“ The primary aim of the skillful salesman when making port is to get safely to the right landing place as soon as possible and with the least danger of failure in his ultimate purpose of completing the sale. ”

“ EMPLOYING TRAVELING SALESMEN—DEPRESSION IN TRADE—HEAVILY IN DEBT—HOW I PRESERVED MY CREDIT—I TAKE TO THE ROAD AGAIN—TRAVELING BY TEAM—DECIDING A HORSE-TRADE—MY BOOK-KEEPER PROPOSES AN ASSIGNMENT—I REJECT THE PROPOSITION—COLLECTING OLD DEBTS BY STRATAGEM.
While traveling in Northern Michigan I came across a young man clerking in a dry-goods store in a small iron-mining town, who expressed a desire to go on the road for me as traveling agent. ”

“ Try to be sure when you hire a man to hire one that has been a success at whatever he has done. While it is best to get a man who is acquainted with your line and with the territory over which he is to travel, do not be afraid to put on a man who knows nothing of your merchandise and is a stranger to every one in the territory you wish to cover. If he has already been a successful salesman he will quickly learn about the goods he is to sell, and after one trip he will be acquainted with the territory. ”

“ The surly salesman who goes around carrying with him a big chunk of London fog does himself harm. If the sun does not wish to shine upon him—if he is having a little run of hard luck—he should turn on himself, even with the greatest effort, a little limelight. He should carry a small sunshine generator in his pocket always. The salesman who approaches his customer with a frown or a blank look upon his face, is doomed right at the start to do no business. ”

“ A real missionary goes into the highways and byways; as the old fisherman says, “he ketches ’em where they ain’t.” He generates enthusiasm in the salesmen he comes in contact with; his sales work is educational; he sets an example for industry, sales ability, loyalty; he teaches the salesman to use superior judgment in not selling too little or too much to a customer; he irons out petty difficulties; he’s an exponent of the sales theory that contemplates holding your head up, but not so high as to let a lot of little orders go by under your nose without seeing them. ”

“ Notice you say Ryan told you the reason he didn’t call on some merchants was because there was no use—they couldn’t be sold. I’ll never forget, the fellow who broke me in as a salesman told me the same thing my first week as we were getting off a train in a little Missouri town that had only two stores in it. He said that the one customer we sold there was the much better merchant of the two and it was no use to go near the other one. ”

“ Get a merchant to looking at your goods and you usually sell a bill.
In the smoking room of a Pullman one night sat a bunch of the boys who, as is usual with them when they get together, were telling of their experiences. The smoker is the drummer's club-room when he is on a trip. On every train every night are told tales of the road which, if they were put in type, would make a book of compelling interest. The life of the traveling man has such variety, such a change of scene, that a great deal more comes into it than mere buy and sell. ”

“ The same gentleman told me that this trip was his second visit to China within a few months.
American salesmen are clever and capable, and well know how to recommend whatever they have to sell. You walk into a store just to look around; there may be nothing that you want, but the adroit manner in which the salesman talks, and the way in which he explains the good points of every article at which you look, makes it extremely difficult for you to leave the store without making some purchases. Salesmen and commercial travellers in the United States have certainly learned the art of speaking. ”

“ He was one of those suspicious fellows that trusted to his own judgment about buying goods rather than place faith in getting square treatment from the traveling man. You all know how much pleasure it gives us to trump the sure trick of one of this kind. I don't believe that merchants, anyway, know quite how independent the traveling man feels who represents a first class house and has a well established trade. Not many of the boys, though, wear the stiff neck even though their lines are strong and they have a good cinch on their business. ”

“ You run a good car."
"Yes, I'm agent for this make. Can I book your order?"
Keep hollering—
There's somebody
Somewhere that'll
Want what you've
Got sometime!
That clerk you all know died and approached the pearly gates.
"Give me a seat in the front row," he demanded of St. Peter.
"Sorry," said the hoary gatekeeper. "Heaven's all sold out, but I can give you something just as good."
Trade was bad. At the end of another blank day the discouraged salesman called on another prospective customer and asked to show his samples. ”

“ If a salesman has shown himself strictly square in his recommendations, the salesman's recommendations regarding a shipment should be followed. The salesman is the man—and the one man —who can tell whether his customer is playing ball or attending to business. Now, for example, not a great while ago, I saw a merchant that one big firm in this country thinks is strictly good, playing billiards on the Saturday before Christmas. ”

“ Perhaps the most conspicuous of these tourists was the grocery salesman. It was necessary for him to interview his trade about every thirty days in order to keep designing rivals from stealing away his customers. As there was a profit in the business, the number of wholesale houses increased, and likewise the 178 number of their representatives. There gradually developed a very intense competition for all kinds of trade.
The commercial traveler was necessarily a man of optimism and usually endowed with a capacity to endure much physical fatigue. ”

“ Suffice to say I took the old boy’s advice and sure enough it paid dividends. Now the same thing applies to selling goods. It’s human nature for youth especially, to chase rainbows and follow what seems to be the easiest way. When you get out of the bus in a small town, which has four big prospects that you know you can sell right along in a row on Main Street, it’s quite natural to go sell ’em and then go to the depot and catch the first train out, but, Red—how about those three little stores way down the other side of the feather factory, about four blocks from the round house? ”

“ This is how important the salesman is to his firm.
I put hiring and handling of salesmen before having a strong line of goods, because if the proper salesmen are hired and are handled right, they will soon compel the house to put out the right line of goods. Just as a retail merchant should consult with his clerks about what he should buy, so, likewise, should the head of the wholesale house find out from his men on the road what they think will sell best. The salesman rubs up against the consumer and knows at first hand what the customer actually wants. ”

“ But not so in the quality of service required by the customer. Human nature is the same from Maine to California, in the ditch digger and in the bank president. The salesman who does not recognize the truth of this fact cannot grow. The successful salesman of the East is also the successful man of the West, the North and the South, but the salesman of narrow vision and small purpose is a failure wherever he goes. ”

“ To the salesman who visits his trade at frequent intervals, life is chiefly made up of customers and hotels. The amusing experiences which every commercial man has are, however, chiefly associated with his various hotel homes. To be able to establish oneself for the night at a cozy hotel where it is allowable to call the clerk and the head waitress by their first names, provides relief from the intense mental concentration necessary in 183 bringing various customers around to the salesman’s way of thinking. ”

“ MEETING HIM FACE TO FACE Without giving the matter a thought, a salesman, or a group of them, may sometimes take station at the front of the store with their backs toward the door while they engage in conversation. Although this may seem a minor matter it is nevertheless important, for the reason that the effect given is not good on a person entering the store. A person’s back suggests coldness and a spirit of unfriendliness. Make every effort to establish and hold the good graces of the customer—this is necessary. Meet your man face to face. ”

“ The streets, where the best shops are located, are a busy sight, indeed, especially during tourists’ season, when crowds of visitors are eagerly selecting souvenirs for home-friends. These tradesmen consider a buyer, who does not bargain for his purchase, a brainless creature to be despised. In fact, one must offer the merchant just about one quarter of the price asked first if he wishes to win esteem and admiration from the native. ”

“ I was once opened up in an adjoining room to a clothing man's. When he left home his mother was very low and not expected to live for a great while; but on his trip go he must. He had a large family, and many personal debts. He could not stay at home because no one else could fill his place on the road. The position of a traveling man, I believe, is seldom fully appreciated. It is with the greatest care that, as you know, a wholesale house selects its salesmen for the road. ”

“ In fact, every successful business has been founded on the small customer, who afterward grew into the big one. You know when Marshall Field first started in business his store didn’t cover a city block, but I suppose there were some two and three-quarters per cent salesmen in those days who thought Field’s business was too small to bother with, but if any of those salesmen are still living you can probably find them now acting as a nurse-girl to a wheezy taxicab. ”

“ If you do not want, or cannot sell these articles on board, there is a merchant here who will be happy to take them off your hands at a liberal profit. One of our passengers, a Scotchman, being used to long voyages, arranged his cabin upon this plan, and cleared a considerable sum during the voyage, by selling these articles quietly to the passengers: he was obliged, of course, to be careful not to have a crowd or any noise at his berth; and, therefore, you must be cautious, and, as soon as your "customers" are served, request them to take their "goods" and consume them in their own cabins. ”

“ To the merchant traveler, even more than to the missionary, observation of the country and its products, its peoples and their needs, is important. The easiest and safest roads by which his merchandise may be transported, new materials, new sources, new markets, are the basis of his success ”