The one great principle to be remembered in con nection with calling back—and this applies to staple lines as well as specialty products—is that an entirely new presentation should be given from an entirely new angle. The "call-back" is to all intents and pur poses a new prospect. The question: Well, what de cision have you come to on my proposition? will, with few exceptions, elicit the answer: I have been think ing that matter over, and I have come to the con clusion that I won't go in on that—for the present at least. Perhaps at some future time—and so on. The probability is that he has not given the salesman's proposition a single moment's thought since the previ ous call and that he does not want to do so now. The salesman should find an entirely new presentation for call-back purposes and should get his proposition be fore the "call-back" prospect from a new standpoint before allowing him to voice a decision at all.
13. Kinds of selling requiring several interviews. —The discussion of the disadvantages of calling back should not be understood to mean that a salesman, re gardless of his proposition, should invariably make a complete selling talk and try to close the order the first time he faces a prospect. Most propositions, it is true, have inherent in them nothing that precludes the possibility of making a sale at the first interview. There are, however, a great many propositions which, owing to their nature and the nature of the conditions surrounding their sale, cannot, except in rare in stances, be sold the first time the salesman meets the prospect.
Life insurance salesmen, for example, go out on what they call "cold canvass." That is, they select a number of individuals to call upon, go and discuss in surance with them in a general way, and incidentally discover how many people are dependent upon the prospect and estimate his probable age and income. It is only after these details have been secured and the situation has been studied, that the life insurance salesman is in the best possible position to decide upon the amount and kind of insurance he will try to sell the prospect. Of course, this information can, if the lead to the prospect has been secured by the coopera tion of one of his friends, be ascertained before the life insurance man's visit. If the lead is obtained from a more general source, however, a visit is neces sary to uncover the desired information.
Salesmen selling special machinery and factory equipment must often continue to call upon their prospects until they are "in the market"; or they must call several times and become sufficiently friendly with the factory superintendent to be allowed to go thru the plant and gauge its needs. Not until they have
done this, can they practise real creative salesmanship in the way of deciding just what equipment the plant could use to advantage, and in building a selling talk for particular items on that decision..
The salesman handling office filing devices or card systems for offices must generally delay his real selling talk until he has secured first-hand information as to the needs of a particular office. The advertising solicitor worthy of the name does not expect to walk in off the street and sell a block of space on his first interview with a prospect. His first call will be made to discuss the prospect's advertising problem in a general way and to study his needs. IIaving clearly in mind the information received, he will make a second call to present a definite plan that will be ad vantageous to the prospect. The only object his first call can accomplish, so far as the prospect is con cerned, is to create in the prospect's mind a certain amount of confidence in the solicitor.
It should be noted, however, that the first calls are not in the true sense selling interviews. A call back., in the sense in which the term is used in this Text can be made only after an interview at which a complete selling talk has been made and an effort to close a sale has resulted unfavorably. The kind of selling. that requires several preliminary calls of the sort indi cated differs only in detail and not in principle from selling which is done at the first interview. For it has been pointed out that no salesman, no matter what his line, should attempt to approach his prospect without first gathering all possible information con cerning him. These preliminary calls are but a method of gathering that information. And in sell ing that requires several calls, just as in the kind that requires but one call, the salesman, once Ile has gath ered all the necessary information and decided def initely upon the proposition he is going to put before the prospect is ready to close. When he has delivered his selling talk the time has come when it is possible to secure the signature .and he should make every en deavor to do so at that interview. He should avoid assiduously the necessity for a call back. He has reached a point where it is possible for him to realize upon the time invested in preliminary work and the transaction should be closed without further loss of valuable time and without allowing the interest and desire created by his selling talk to wane.