Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MWDV
ffljSIC TIRADE
VOL.
X L V I I . N o . 2 0 . Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave., New York, November 14,
1908. S I N G I $1OS°PER S VEAR. E N T S -
There was once a very successful American merchant who used to tell his salesmen that they
should he able to "see money in a customer's pocketbook and that the customer should not get out
without leaving some of it in the store."
That statement represents crudity—even coarseness—but after all there is a kernel of truth
in it which is well worthy of closer analysis.
There is a mental atmosphere in selling. The moment you speak to a customer an impres-
sion is conveyed—sometimes unconsciously, but often consciously. Tf that impression is a pleasing
one and one of confidence in you, the start toward a successful sale is well made.
By consciously keeping your mind on your work and on your mental attitude, you will find
that in time the process becomes automatic. By mental training, salesmanship may be materially
aided.
Did you ever approach a horse with the thought or fear that he would make a pass at you?
Tf you have, ten chances to one, the very thing happened that you counted upon. The reason
for this is that the horse recognized your suspicions and acted accordingly. Now if you meet a cus-
tomer with the feeling in your mind that the customer belongs to the inconsequential type and that
there is a small possibility of making a sale, there is every chance in the world that very thing will
happen. No sale will be made.
To use the crude expression of the old merchant, whom I quoted in the first paragraph, you
did not "see money in the customer's pocketbook.'' It is the mental atmosphere which counts and if
you see that money in the pocket of customers which the successful merchant taught all of his sales-
men to locate, you will be working along resultful lines.
Make yourself think that it is a pleasure and an honor to wait upon a customer who comes
into your warerooms, and make up your mind, too, that you are going to close that sale. Make up
vour mind you are going to do it for the hard and brutal, but honest, reason that it will help you to
earn your own living.
An honest enthusiasm and a hearty sympathetic spirit infused in the work of selling will help
to clinch sales and clinched sales mean more money, less mental strain, decreased friction. All of
these things are easy if we will but consider them fairly and figure to impress callers. Have the
fixed belief in your mind that every caller is a rich prospect.
Play your part with enthusiasm, with earnestness and with a definite purpose.
Then you will be convincing and your power for sales closing vastly increased.
EDWARD LYMAN BILL.