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THE
flUJ1C TIRADE
VOL. LIIL N o . 15. Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman BUI at 1 Madison Ave., New York, Oct. 14,1911
SINGL
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ENTS
Salesmanship Is Greatly Misunderstood
HAVE steadily maintained that salesmanship is a profession and should take its rightful rank among
the skilled professions of our time.
Good salesmen win greater incomes than ordinary physicians, lawyers or college professors,
and it requires years of the closest study to reach an altitudinous point in the world of sales-
manship.
One reason why salesmanship does not take its true rank among the professions is the fact that many
men have viewed it too lightly. They seem to think that anyone can sell goods. That is an absurd belief.
You ask the average man what salesmanship is and he will merely answer the selling of goods.
That is the definition which the dictionary might give. It defines but does not explain.
It falls far short of the description of what is meant by the term salesmanship.
It is not merely the exchange of certain goods for moneys.
There is ail intangible something beyond that. Exchange of goods for money is simply an out-
ward expression—a symbol.
The signing of the order—the exchange of goods and money which follow are simply details.
. We confound these material terms with the real sale, which is entirely immaterial and intangible.
Suppose a salesman is trying to sell a piano.
'* He has the instrument ready for demonstration and the customer is near at hand.
Here are three material factors that enter into any and every sale—the salesman, the product to be
sold, and the customer.
There is another factor which enters into any and every sale—and only another—the sale itself.
This is the immaterial factor, but after all the essential one.
The salesman believes that the customer should have the piano. He has convinced himself on this
point.
The customer, on the other hand, does not want the piano. He believes he does not need it.
His state of mind, in other words, is directly opposed to the state of mind of the salesman.
Here is where salesmanship comes in.
The good salesman gets his customer's attention and then enters into a demonstration of what the
piano will do, and finally at the psychological moment closes the argument-—he crystallizes that desire
to have in a decision to buy.
Now, what has happened?
The man's state of mind has been completely changed.
The salesman has convinced him that he was wrong and in this way created in him the desire to have
the instrument and a decision
to get it at the salesman's price.
There is only one w r ay that a man can be influenced to change his mind and that is by the power of
persuasion, and that word persuasion cuts a large figure in our language.
A sale is a mental process, since a decision can only be reached by the mind, and the mind can only be
influenced by persuasion.
Now, how did the salesman persuade?
It was his bearing—his appearance—his enthusiasm—his sincerity—his determination—all were fac-
tors, and who shall say that salesmanship is not a science?
I say that salesmanship is very greatly misunderstood.
It is a very proud profession and a most interesting one, and it illustrates how one man may control
by mental processes the decision of another's mind!
I