The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1916)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD 45 SOME HINTS ON SALESMANSHIP The Salesman Who Understands Human Nature, and Who Concentrates His Entire Energy Upon His Work, Is the Man Who Will Win in the Talking Machine Trade Some salesmen have individual qualifications which make it easy for them to suggest directly 01 indirectly the idea they wish their customers to receive. The salesman with the right personality, what we may call a "selling personality," finds it easy to direct the channels of thought of his customers. His whole attitude and expression convey the idea he wishes absorbed, and the customer unconsciously develops a favorable feeling. In developing suggestive salesmanship, salesmanship which shall act through the indirect expression as well as through the direct, the salesman needs to know his customer's pecul:arities. The better you know the individuality of the prospective buyer, the better you can lead his mental processes. The better you can read human nature, the better you can handle the individual buyer. Unless you are able to read human nature in others they will get the better of you. Your customers will prove too much for you. It is necessary for you to keep the upper hand with the customer if you are to do the leading. This does not mean that you are going to browbeat him, but that you are going to understand him better than he understands you. Yours should be the greater mind if it is going to suggest to the other. Yours should be the self-confident position, but not the overconfident. If your suggestions of any kind are to carry weight they must be made with enthusiasm. The customer will feel in a minute any lack of faith in your own goods. If you are apathetic, apathy will show in all you say and do about the goods. Competition is too keen for a man to be a success in selling if he feels no enthusiasm over his goods. Buyers are apt to buy that over which they themselves wax enthusiastic. But the buyer will not develop much enthusiasm when the salesman cannot develop it. Enthusiasm suggests enthusiasm and apathy suggests apathy. Without knowing why, the prospective customer who is met by an unenthusiastic salesman will himself fail to continue even the enthusiasm he felt when he came in. You may talk in strongly favorable language of the article you are trying to sell. The price and the quality may be all you claim, and you perhaps claim enough, but along with your talk will go a sub-conscious suggestion which will unconsciously be absorbed by the buyer, and this suggestion will be one of apathy or of enthusiasm about the goods, just according to your own inner feelings. Every sale you make is a mental transaction rather than a verbal or a financial one. In order to make the sale it is necessary that you talk and it is necessary for money to change hands. But the talk is merely the medium for the exchange of ideas. The ideas themselves are existent only in the mind. The money end of the deal is only the result of the mental transaction. It is your YOU ARE LOSING Sales, Time, Money Unless your Records are filed in the OGDEN SYSTEM w hich is Guaranteed to_ You by Your Jobber A PATENTED DEVICE for Filing Records Patented Features which can't be used in any other System. A Modern Method of Filing which shows the selling value of every Record. Prevents warping. Locates any Record instantly. OGDEN SECTIONAL CABINET CO. Lynchburg, Va. Model No. 1 for 10 in. and 12 in. Records. Model No. 3 for 10 in. Records Model No. 8 for Pathe Records. WRITE FOR ESTIMATE own mental attitude and the mental attitude of the buyer that are to be considered. The situation is controlled by these mental positions. There is a great deal of talk about the psychology of salesmanship. That is nothing but the mental side of buying and selling; and, after all, what is there about salesmanship that is important in such a degree as the mental feature? When salesmanship is regarded from its mental side the consideration may be slightly more technical. It may appear more theoretical. But then nothing is more practical than sound theory. If we are to suggest definite ideas to a customer through manner and through any direct means, we must see that the conditions are as favorable as possible. In making a distinct and accurate record .on the cylinder of a phonograph it is necessary to eliminate all unnecessary noises and to concentrate the desired sound waves in the receiver. In taking a long-distance telephone message where the voice is indistinct it is necessary to concentrate attention. If you are going to get a delicately expressed suggestion registered on the prospect's mind, you must see that there is no conflicting idea in the air, that the suggestion has a clear field and the mind of the recipient is in a favorable attitude. This involves careful operating, but careful work is necessary in order to perform any difficult task, and high-class salesmanship may be filled with difficulties — all of which you can overcome. In getting an idea before the prospective buyer clearly it is desirable to emphasize its most striking characteristics. An/ suggestion that is involved in a maze of detail is not a well-defined suggestion when it reaches its destination and it will probably fail of an effect. The man who can say "thank you" as though he meant it when he sells you a postage stamp is headed straight for success. Prompt Shipments guaranteed on T RITO N M OTORS If you are in a hurry for some GOOD motors, rush your order to us and the motors will be delivered promptly and as promised. Triton motors are made in a plant exclusively devoted to motor production, and for a low priced motor, we consider them the best value on the market. 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