Many men feel that a regular fixed salary is an absolute necessity, so that their income and expenditure may be known and arranged for in advance. To those men commercial travelling will appeal more strongly than specialty salesmanship, especially since the former profession calls fbr just as high grade qualities as the latter, although of a somewhat different kind.
Those liable to fits of depression should not enter the selling profession, especially the specialty branch of it, for the fluctuations in income, the unaccountable failures on sonic days, following the unexpected :,aCCeSSCS of previous days, will upset the balance of such people. Many men, again, have no great stock of patience, and do not understand calling half-a-dozen times for an interview, and waiting as many weeks or even months for an order.
The selling of specialties is generally an outdoor life, with something of the spice of gambling. Calling forth the best that is in a man, it is an enjoyable occupation to many. Its many uncertainties, the fact that the month of hardest work is rarely the month of greatest results, and that the certain prospect does not always buy, would rend€r many a worthy man utterly miserable. To the self-reliant optimist there is a great field open. The pessimist and the man who needs supervision are better off in other spheres of work.
Of preliminary preparation for the life referred to, little can he said beyond emphasising the need of a fair general education and the cultivation of a pleasant but not subservient manner. So many men will be met in the field whose methods of business seem all wrong, that one needs a goodly share of tolerance for the faults of others, so the man who is perpetually seeking to put other people straight will need to lie a diplomat if he is to succeed.
That genius which consists of taking infinite pains is almost essential, for in the majority of cases it will be necessary to prepare a course of action and a line of argument before attempting to make an approach upon the possible purchaser. Some men are easily able to arouse interest in others, and attention is given to them almost as a matter of course. Such men, believing thoroughly in the article presented, are able to convey their enthusiasm to a prospective buyer and bring his interest to such a pitch that he determines to make a purchase even at great expense.
Honesty is the life and soul of the,.selling of specialties. The article must be honestly worth its price to the purchaser, the salesman must be honestly convinced of its value, and must be honestly able to induce the prospect to invest his money. Even then hard work remains to be done, for the average man steadily refuses tq, be convinced about a thing he does not understand. Salesmanship is therefore largely a matter of teaching others what the salesman knows to be true.
SHOP advance in the methods of estab lishing a proprietary article has been by demonstrating its quality in the shopping centres. This idea is practically an ()Moot from the general tendency shown to use exhibitions which may have local, county, or national significance. There are some signs that the trade exhibition has been over done in many of its aspects, but there is one feature of the trade exhibition which most manufacturers have realised, and that is the advantage it gives of bringing him or his representatives into close and actual contact with the consumer. In selling many specialities, particularly foods and articles generally in demand in the home and the daily life of large numbers of people, the conversion of the non-buyer into the buyer is frequently best achieved by demonstrating to him the excellence of the article. In the past the exhibition has lent itself to this kind of missionary work. In centres where big crowds gathered together it was obviously a good business wove to be represented by a stand where practical demonstrations of the value of the goods could be made to all who chose to stay the time occupied by the demonstration. The value of this idea made the series of successful exhibitions which have been held of recent years possible, and stands at exhibitions became more and more popular with dealers in tea, cocoa, meat extracts, patent soups or food-stuffs of most characters, and with manufac turers who had patented or proprietary articles of daily use in the cleaning or maintenance of the home.