Music Trade Review

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12
(Salesmanship)
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
trouble with just as big a smile. Don't make him feel as if he
had done something wrong when he has cause for complaint.
Give him the impression that you are glad he called your atten-
tion to the defect; in fact, you consider it a favor that he has
come back.
If many customers are not coming back asking for you per-
sonally—look out. There's something the matter with your
salesmanship. If some things are good enough to bring folks
back again for them by name, surely salesmanship should have
this "repeat" quality also. The salesman who has the biggest
line of customers waiting for him is the salesman who will get
there. We must all bear in mind that while a keen desire to
"make a record" is natural and creditable, it must not blind us
to the fact that far more important than to sell more is to satisfy
more.
The department manager cries "give-me-an-ad-in-the-paper"
—as if there were a sort of magic in that. And it is indeed a
relatively simple matter for an advertising man to string words
together to make pleasing mental pictures that attract folks to
the store—particularly if the general reputation of the store is
good.
But—when these people come to the store—what then?
Will they find the merchandise right—the prices right—
salespeople capable of interpreting the goods, and who have
caught the spirit of modern storekeeping; to be courteous, to be
helpful, to remember that the customer is always right? I say,
will they find these things? Because if they do not, then is all
the advertising vain—yes, worse than vain—for then it will
surely recoil on the house—and on us.
You see, there's no particularly miraculous power about
advertising, after all. It's simply telling the news of the store
and its offerings in an interesting way. Like other news in the
paper, it must be based on facts—facts truthfully and soberly
presented, without even the tinge of exaggeration—or both
store and "the paper" will in time be utterly discredited.
I am particularly keen on these matters because I feel myself
to be in a deep sense a representative of the outside public. As
the public's representative, I go about the store—watching—-
analyzing—criticizing—comparing. I must be shown. Can you
sell me? If you can, then I can sell the public. But I must be-
lieve myself, or I cannot convince others.
Now let's get down to "brass tacks." How can we make our
advertising constantly more effective? First, I believe, by always
remembering that the house has an honored name, and that it is
both our privilege and our duty to uphold that name in every way
that we can.
And this means extraordinary care on our part that we never
become careless, or superficial, or discourteous. Care, above all
else, that we weigh our words and do not let our enthusiasm
beguile us into overstatements, into claims that cannot be dem-
onstrated, or promises that we or the house cannot fulfil. For
public confidence is at best an unstable structure: the slightest
misstatement may topple it over.
Let's be builders! Let's build confidence—always more con-
fidence. And the only way I know to build confidence is to
deserve it.
Perhaps the above may sound a bit like preaching. But this
advertising problem seems to me to simmer down to about this:
A store that rightly takes care of its customers will have the
right kind of customers to take care of—whether it formally
advertises or not.
But, of course, if it does advertise, and if its advertising is
newsy, informative, and truthful through and through, that store
will gain just so many more customers, for folks certainly like to
learn about and patronize a store that treats its patrons as
friends, with all that this implies—a store whose first and last
consideration is always—a customer!
One practice which I am utterly opposed to is that of
offering a bonus to salespeople to move certain merchandise.
While there are some few arguments in favor of this practice
and which, if it could be carefully guarded and guided, might
produce favorable results, still the practice is one that so easily
leads one in wrong channels that it is best to steer clear of it
altogether.
In many instances there is no practice in business which so
creates selfishness on the part of the salesperson; which so be-
clouds the eyes of real service given to the customer as the
practice of offering a bonus for moving certain slow-selling mer-
chandise. It leads the salesperson to take undue advantage of
the customer by selling things either which he is not in need
of or is otherwise undesirable. The removal of such merchan-
dise is up to the buying end, and that of special sales which
do not exaggerate nor force customers to buy.
Now in conclusion, and as a summary of the whole thing, I
think it can be boiled down to this:
Always remember that it is the customer's privilege to decide
where he shall buy and what shall be bought.
Further: Every sale doesn't do a store good. If the cus-
tomer is not rendered a real service; if he is unduly influenced ;
if no consideration is taken of his natural taste; if the purchase
is reluctantly accomplished—that sale is a failure. The right
way is to help a customer sell himself.
What the Salesman Expects from His Sales Manager
The following article was written by a successful piano salesman who has been em-
ployed by prominent concerns in many sections of the East, and who appreciates from
experience just what conditions the piano salesman labors under and what he should
expect. His viewpoint, that of the salesman, is worthy of more than casual attention.—
EDITOR.
a piano salesman, forty years old and successful, inasmuch
I am AM
as I sell enough pianos to give me a comfortable living and I
not a "report faker" nor "job loafer."
Every time I take up my trade paper I read remarkable and
wonderful articles by sales managers where I am told of the
value of this and the value of that, how to approach Mrs. Jones
or Mr. Smith and how line it is to have good fellowship, etc.,
etc., etc.
I believe an article entitled "What I Expect From My Sales
Manager" would sort of balance the various articles by the big
fellows.
We salesmen, who are the men that make it possible for
this business to exist, are seldom heard from except when we
bring in a contract with "the name on the dotted line," so I
think I am talking for all of our clan when I recite a few of
the things we expect from our sales manager.
We expect courtesy. Boorishness and brusqueness create
antagonism and many a sales manager has lost a valuable man by
the "Great-I-Am" way he receives him. We expect not familiarity
(that breeds contempt) but courtesy and good will to the man
who, at some future time, may have a bigger job, bigger perhaps
than that of the man who is hiring him.
We expect a man who will work with us. I do not mean
one who, in the meeting and at the morning interview, will tell
us what to say and how to say it—all such talk is good and the
salesman is a fool who does not listen to the experiences of the
man who has been through the mill; but a man who once in a
while will get out with us and show us—we want to be shown.
If our sales manager proves to us that he is also a salesman, we
will have more confidence in what he tells us than if we believe
he is only an arm-chair expert.
We expect a man to whom we can go (especially the younger
men) with our little business problems and who is sympathetic
and willing to listen to us. A man cannot sell pianos when he is
worried, and a little heart-to-heart talk with a big-hearted "regu-
lar fellow" who will advise us and try and help us saves many a
dollar for the "house."
We expect a man who will stand up strong for us before
the "big boss," who will see that we get our rights and a square
deal. Such a man can always count on the backing of his men,
and the backing of your men counts. I remember talking with a
sales manager once who told me that when he applied for a
position and was asked for references said that the best refer-
ences he could give were the names of men who had worked for
him.
Therefore, I think the ideal sales manager is the one who can
give his men as a reference—not a superman, just a human being
like ourselves, who greets us with a real "Good Morning" and
who gives us a little extra pat when we "put one over."