This brings us to the article to be sold. It is desirable for the ambitious man to consider several propositions, and to select that article for selling which appeals to him most strongly, and for which he believes there is a real need. If there are competing specialties, an effort should be made to become associated with the firm whose methods are the most and whose goods will profit by comparison with competing lines.
Unless the salesman is thoroughly convinced as to the great value to the purchaser of the article to be handled, it is better not to start, for speaking generally, the difficulties of the profession are quite great enough without one's having to be an actor every working day. Before taking up a line, he should call upon a few users of the specialty under consideration, and find out if they are satisfied. If user after user tells him that the purchase was one of the best investments he ever made, then the selling man is justified in taking up the proposition; but if he is met with black looks, there has been something wrong in the past management, or else the goods are not what they profess to be.
After the intending salesman has himself been convinced of the un doubted value of the specialty, he is in a position to convey his enthusiasm to others, provided he has the ability. If the firm offering him an engr ge merit are willing to train new men, the salesman should avail himself of the opportunity, for it is only reasonable to suppose that the owners of a business have discovered, through past experience, the best way to handle their own particular line. No man knows everything of a subject, and one's personality is by no means destroyed by having a course of lessons embodying the failures which have been made by some of the former employees and the successes made by those remaining, together with the reasons in each case.
So much depends upon satisfying the users of a specialty, that absolute squareness in dealing will be found by far the most profitable in the end. One purchaser who is smarting under a grievance will almost entirely stop sales in his immediate neighbourhood and in all sorts of other unexpected places, and he will shout his dissatisfaction from the house-tops. The satisfied man will not say a great deal about his purchase, for he regards satisfaction as a matter of course, if he ever considers the matter at all. Sharp practice
has often been indulged in when selling specialties, and it is a great pity. It behoves every member of the selling profession to maintain the high standard of conduct which renders business easy by establishing confidence, which is the basis of our whole commercial system.
Unfortunately the income to be derived from the sale of special goods varies very greatly from month to month—in fact, the steady-going com mercial travellers regard the specialty salesman's occupation as more or less of a gamble. Deals take a great while to work up in some cases, and figures are generally prepared on a monthly basis. A month is only a short period of time, and the income made month by month therefore fluctuates violently. For this reason it is an advantage to possess some reserve capital of one's own, or only to draw week by week the average amount likely to be earned. The lean months will then be counteracted by the fat ones. If a balance accumulates to one's credit on the books of the employers, it can be drawn in a lump sum from time to time, and then one really feels that he is in business on his own account.
It is fairly easy for the specialty salesman who is working in town, and whose expenses are therefore light, to draw from i'15 to £8 per week, and to keep his account properly balanced, but only if he has the right kind of ability, the knack of selling. If required to work in the country and carry samples of considerable weight, considerably more money will be drawn, and the rate of commission is invariably higher in consequence.
In some cases payment is made by salary, plus expenses and a small com mission on turnover, but that is more usual in the case of commercial travellers properly so-called, and is not a likely way of calling forth the continual new effort required in selling specialties. If a salesman on the road knows that one extra success will bring him an additional ten-pound note, he will find it easy to make an extra effort, but if the amount of the sale simply goes to swell a yearly turnover, upon which 1 per cent. may or may not be obtained, the effort is not so likely to be made.