The selling of cloaks and suits and of men's cloth ing at retail is supposed to require a higher order of salesmanship than the selling of smaller, lower-priced articles. The centering of desire on a particular gar ment and the closing of a sale is a difficult accomplish ment. The compensation is correspondingly large. The selling of expensive furs and imported gowns calls for a still higher order of ability. Rug salesmen in the higher class department stores regularly close sales running into three and four figures and are usually compensated on a commission basis. It is not uncommon for their compensation to go as high as three, four, or five thousand dollars a year. As we advance in the scale of retail selling, the discrepancy, as regards well-trained salesmen, between the demand and the supply increases, and remuneration increases in proportion.
12. Salesmen, who seek the buyer.—We come next to the traveling salesman who goes to the buyer. Here we have first, the commercial traveler, repre senting a wholesale house and engaged in disposing of staples against strong competition. A man who can sell in this field is an asset to a firm; one who can not is distinctly a liability. The demand for sales men who will be an asset far exceeds the supply. Then, we have the final and highest type of sales man, the man who is selling a specialty for which an entirely new dernand must be created. We must in clude here the promoter, who assembles and plans a new enterprise and interests capital in it. The de mand for men capable of this creative salesmanship is practically unlimited. Compensation, therefore, is also unlimited. Men have been known to make a for tune in a single transaction; and it is not at all ex traordinary for men of this type to earn from. ten to fifty thousand dollars a year.
13. Opportunities in salesmanship.—A man who can sell will command several times the salary that he could earn in routine or clerical work, or eVell ill some important constructive work pertaining to produc tion, accounts or finance. There are two main rea sons for this. First, the executive head of a business is very likely to think of his sales department in terms of income and profits and of his other departments in terms of outgo and expense, and as a result, is likely to be more liberal in his plans for compensation in the sales department. Second, the actual worth to a firm of a man in any of these other fields cannot be accurately determined, but there is nothing uncertain about the worth of a salesman to his firm. It can be figured out in actual dollars and cents.
14. What the salesman Chalmers, who was formerly known as one of America's fore most salesmen, says that a man should always view his compensation from two angles. First, what can I earn? Second, what can I learn? From the latter point of view, salesmanship is especially attractive. The salesman comes into contact with a wide circle of business men. He acquires the ability to meet men
and to address them. He gets a first-hand knowl edge of the big business prOblem of distribution.‘ He learns to observe the business methods of others. He develops poise and self-confidence. In short, he ac quires the strong, positive qualities that make for suc cess in business.
A great many big business executives began as salesmen. A personal knowledge of conditions on the firing line is invaluable to the man who is direct ing operations from a private office. The salesm4n, therefore, who takes advantage of every opportunity for becoming a broad-gauged business man is prepar ing himself for an executive position, either in the house for which he is selling or in a business of his own building. John North Willys came in from the road where he had been selling automobiles for an other concern to establish the Willys-Overland Com pany of which he is the head today.
With all its opportunities, selling, as a great sales manager has put it, is the most fascinating game in the world ; and it is a game of brain, pure and simple. It satisfies man's inherent love of a-contest, which is inspired by the hazard of defeat and the chance of big victory. To sum up, the man who can sell is a suc cess—others may be.
15. Universality of selling.—Salesmanship, in its broadest sense, is essentially the selling of one's point of view—the ability to start with the other fellow's point of view and to lead his mind to the viewpoint of the seller. When one individual endeavors to influ ence another to adopt a certain mental attitude or to act in a certain way, he is practising salesmanship. Everyone can profit by a knowledge of the principles of salesmanship and of successful selling methods, using the terms in this broad sense.
Everyone, at one time or another, sells his services. If we can present our qualifications in such a way as to convince the other fellow, we shall sell our services more surely, and possibly at a higher figure than if we arc uncertain in our methods. The accountant who would become a general auditor would do well to study salesmanship before presenting his proposi tion. The advertising manager must "sell" his board of directors on the efficacy of an advertising cam paign ; and "sell" them, too, on the necessity of an ad vertising appropriation. The shop superintendent who desires improved equipment in his plant must "sell" the board of directors. The corporation treas urer, when he goes to borrow funds, must "sell" the bank on bis proposition. The great lawyer, pleading for a life before a jury, is simply trying to "sell" that jury his point of view. Even a great statesman might well be compared to a high-class specialty sales man. Every man, then, has ft vital interest in that knowledge of the human mind and that practice of persuasion in which lies the essence of salesmanship.