Sometimes the use of the hotel proprietor's office can be secured, but not very often, and the interruptions are distressing. One or two efforts to make use of a room in which a telephone is fixed generally result in lost business, for nothing is more fatal than to have the Thread of an argument suddenly interrupted. The specialty travelling man will find that little ready-made accommodation exists for him, so he must set to work to make shift. One thing is fortunately in his favour—he cannot travel fast, and generally finds that it pays to stay in a town for a considerable time while he is there. This fact renders his custom worth and will sometimes induce hotel people to move furniture around a little. The most successful specialty salesman will go to the best hotel in a town and secure the best room available for his purpose. The room must be carpeted, and an easy chair provided for the prospective purchaser. Tables, neatly covered, are used for the display of the samples and of advertising matter. In winter, the temperature must he such that one can sit for an hour or two in comfort ; in short, everything possible should be done to make the hotel room appear like the office of a prosperous business man.
The sample apparatus, or books, or as the case may be, must be so arranged that the lighting of the apartment will display them to advantage at night time, whilst sufficiently illuminated by day. Where several kinds of special things are handled at the same time, it is necessary to concentrate the attention of the prospective purchaser upon the article under discussion at any moment, and for this reason means must sometimes be found to cover up or keep out of sight, those goods which are not immediately concerned. In specialty selling, everything depends upon the presentation of the case, and even the prospective buyer could have no objection to the salesman taking all possible pains to make the investigation of the goods easy and comfortable, providing always that the goods have merit and will bring profit to the buyer. It is well that nothing should be present in the hotel office, as it might be called, to attract the attention of the visitor, and to lead his thoughts away from the proposition being submitted to hint. Striking pictures and other objects are best removed, since they may start the conversation off into a wrong channel.
In the way outlined, it is comparatively easy to give a full description of a new article or process to a possible purchaser, there is no danger of interruption, and the petty distractions of the main's own place of business are absent. It has been conclusively proved that taking the amount of trouble suggested, and to the accompanying expense, is amply justified by results; for it must borne in mind that in many cases the course is still open for taking the specialty to the prospect where it has been found impossible to induce the prospect to make an appointment at the hotel.
This is also necessary in those rare cases where the prospect objects to going to the leading hotel on questions of principle. Many specialty salesmen have at different times gone to the trouble of having made up the necessary screens, folding tables, &c., so that the hotel sitting-room might readily be made available for their purpose.
Results have generally proved that the man who takes the most trouble gets the cream of the business. If pains are taken in getting one's room ready for business, there is less tendency to rush away from a town before it is half-canvassed, and the error of leaving business in order to look for business is thereby avoided.
It should be that the use. of a room in a hotel enables one to show a number of samples, where probably only one could have been carried into the office of the possible purchaser. Objections raised during the explanation are therefore more readily cleared up by reference to a different pattern, or attention can be drawn to another line in which business may result. Then again, at the hotel room or office, a comparison can be made between different (Trades, patterns, or models, as the case may be, while any competing line can also be at hand for comparison. One always feels more or less at a disadvantage in another man's office, but the conditions are partly reversed when the prospect visits the hotel office, where one can reduce the feeling of disadvantage by showing more courtesy to the visitor than the salesman could expect to receive from him at his own place of business, callers there being more or less a nuisance.
At the hotel office, it is often easy to show the special goods, probably novelties to most people, to travellers who happen to be staying in the house. These men have the confidence of the people with whom they trade, and can often put in a word which will sink very deeply. To transport one's samples to another town, after laboriously overhauling and packing them, is always a tiresome business, but it is a matter to which one becomes accustomed, and then it is not very serious, providing sufficient time can always be allowed for the work. An enthusiastic man selling a special line of goods, which means that he is working on commission, will make a point of removing on a Saturday from town to town, but this cannot often be expected from the commercial man who works on salary, and who, moreover, is continually moving about.