There was once a salesman who sold a line of toys for five years before he learned that great care was taken in the factory to keep the coloring matter free from poison.
A knowledge of the stock room, of how orders are handled, packed and shipped, and of how collections are made, will enable the salesman to discover whether or not a customer's last order was shipped promptly and whether or not Ile paid for it, before he calls on him for another.
One would suppose that no salesman ever did neg lect these things, but buyers in various lines will testify that the number of salesmen who call upon them un prepared—without a proper knowledge of their goods —is startlingly large. Buyers in department stores say that it is quite common for a salesman to call for a second order before the first has been shipped. Often instead of being fully acquainted with the facts. the salesman is surprised to learn from the buyer that there has been a delay.
The question very often put to buyers : "What kind of salesman secures your friendship and your busi ness?" invariably brings the response: "The man who knows his business and tells me something new about it, and who brings me new ideas about mine." This answer seems to be especially applicable in the case of highly competitive lines and would seem to indicate the way to success for the salesmen who must compete with others on an even basis as regards price, quality and service. There are any number of men soliciting.
orders for printing, but there are comparatively few among them who know enough about printing to fur nish the buyer with fresh ideas or to originate plans for him. The printing buyer, nine times out of ten, does not know as much as he should about printing and therefore welcomes the man who can increase his in formation. He shows his appreciation by giving such a man his business, sometimes even paying a higher price than he ordinarily would pay. The engraving salesman who knows his business and can correctly interpret the buyer's ideas in regard to the finished cut is as successful as he is rare.
But the salesman's information should include more than this. He should know what raw materials enter into the product he is selling, the history of those raw materials and the processes that they go thru. The
retail lace salesman can arouse in the prospect a very keen interest if he will but read up on laces. The grocery salesman who can talk about growing and canning processes is a man who will interest the dealer. The clothing salesman who knows some thing about long and short staple wool, the processes in the making of fine worsteds, ciyeing in the piece and in the thread, and the small details that make for quality in a garment, can interest the buyer and, incidentally, point out some of the sui rior qualities of the garment that he is selling.
Most sales managers today provide a more or less thoro and systematic training for salesmen who join their organizations, give them a fair working knowl edge of the selling points of the goods they are to sell, and furnish them with the plan of a selling talk that has proved successful in practice. If the salesman is employed by a house that does not do these things, or is selling for himself, he must be his own sales man ager to the extent of recognizing and selecting the selling points of his goods and planning an effective selling talk. In this connection it would be well to read the portion of Part II of this Text that treats of the training of salesmen, the building of a sales man ual, the selection of selling points and the planning of a selling talk.
6. Ambition.—Some men dream of success and others will frankly admit that they are ambitious, but the men who will go forth in earnest and struggle un ceasingly to satisfy their ambition are few and far be tween. This kind of ambition is a prime requisite of salesmanship. Salesmen should take ambition for their running mate; they should be imbued with a steadfast purpose of achieving something worth while. The salesman's ambition to make a record is often the means of his discovering new methods of increasing sales, new avenues' of approach and new uses for the product. Complacency, on the other hand, never in creased business. When a salesman's self-satisfac tion becomer,(indifference and indolence he is on the road to dismal failure.