Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MILflC TIRADE
V O L . LI. N o . 8. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at 1 Madison Ave M New York, August 20,1910
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UST about this time road salesmen are preparing to make their early fall incursions among the
trade.
Selling goods in any line is no light task, and a salesman of experience realizes that ideas
—practical methods of selling goods—are all of the greatest value, and he knows also that it
pays him to search for them.
He cannot successfully employ the same old methods of doing things month after month—
year after year.
He must be modern—up-to-date—as much so as men engaged in other professions, for selling
merchandise is a profession, and it requires patience, tactfulness and perseverance to win in the field
of professional salesmanship.
These are qualities some possess to a pleasing degree, but all can possess them moderately if
they strive for them.
There is a great danger of salesmen falling into a rut and traveling the same old path, using
the same old arguments, and in the end securing diminishing orders.
Now, there is no such thing as standing still, because standing still is another name for retro-
gression.
We are either going up the ladder or we are bound to be going down.
The ladder of salesmanship is not difficult to climb, but the fact should be impressed upon
every one who is engaged in selling products, either at wholesale or retail, that salesmanship con-
sists of brain work.
, • '
If it were not brains, then good salesmanship would not command prices which are alluring".
I t is mind, not muscle, which effects the sales.
Merely rattling off a few pleasant words—telling a story—punching a man in the ribs and
offering him a cigar—does not do the trick, and just wishing for business does not get it.
Seeing a customer once at the right hour is better than seeing him ten times at the wrong one.
Josh Billings at one time said: "I have read much about milk. I have heard much about milk,
but the best thing I ever saw on milk was cream."
Now, salesmen can tell of their experiences—pleasant and otherwise—all their woes and trib-
ulations—of the fact that this man was overstocked and that man was not in a buying mood—but
the one thing which interests their principals is results—sales.
All the rest is mere froth, for it is results that count—that is the cream on the business milk.
A man may work faithfully, loyally—but does he win results? If not, his methods must be
wrong—out of date, perhaps.
Anyhow, a careful scrutiny of ways and means will help.