GETTING “UNDER HIS SKIN”

It is for the salesman, if he is to get results, to talk to his customer in terms of facts and ideas—not simply “words.” Sometimes we hear of a person who “talks a great deal but says nothing,” and we understand by this that his statements are without facts—that there is no point to what he says. Personal selling is a matter of presenting the story to the customer in such a way that he realizes he is getting information. It is for the salesman to tell his story so that it will “get under the customer’s skin.” This requires a certain amount of originality, a knowledge of what is being sold, an understanding of the customer.

In reading footwear advertisements, which are simply printed selling talks, it is interesting to notice how well the selling points are presented to appeal to different classes of customers. The following one, for instance, is directed to men. It is brief, but in a few words brings out the story by emphasizing the qualities of comfort and convenience, which are of greatest importance to most men:

Low shoes give your ankles a holiday every day.

Perhaps russet is a bit cooler—it’s easier to care for anyhow.

Other people think more of exact shoe fitting, especially if they are having trouble with their feet. The main selling point in this case is that of offering a shoe to do away with further troubles. The following ad. shows how this was done. The shoe salesman has the same problem, except that he has the advantage of meeting the buyer face to face and can tell his story in a little different way.

Ever have trouble with your feet? “Blank” wearers never do. That’s because the “Blank” fits perfectly—no pinching, nor pain for the grown-ups—no deformities for growing feet. The “Blank” shoe starts the foot right and keeps it so.

But, as every shoe salesman will know, different people have different ideas concerning what is the feature most desirable in a shoe. To impress the person who considers as uppermost the matter of appearance and style, the selling talk is directed along a different line so as to “get under the skin” of such a customer.

If you have a pretty foot and ankle, wear a shoe that does them justice. If you haven’t, wear a shoe that makes them look as if the pretty foot and ankle were yours. “Blank” shoes for women emphasize the pretty foot, add grace and shapeliness to any foot. “Blank” shoes fit all over—not in spots. They fit around the ankle and they fit around the foot, and fit both with the smoothness of a stocking and the firmness of a glove. The fit of the ankle is for something more than looks. That graceful custom-made “curve” at the back holds the shoe firmly but gently in place. No up-and-down slide—heel-hurting and peace-impairing—to the “Blank” shoe.

These selling appeals are all made with the express purpose of meeting the individual desires of different classes of people. The man who tells the printed story realizes that he cannot get results in talking style to the person who is suffering from foot trouble, or vice versa. He realizes that there are many classes of customers and he plans his selling talk so that it will be accepted by the people to whom he is talking. The salesman will realize at once that he must meet the same condition.

MAKING TWO SALES OUT OF ONE

Just as it is possible for a man, by mixing brains with his effort, to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before, or to grow two bushels of wheat on the plot that formerly produced but one, so also the salesman may increase his production of sales. With him it is a matter of seasoning his effort with ideas and suggestions that will appeal to the customer and stir-up the desire to buy. To illustrate: The manager of one of the finest shoe departments in the United States has built up a big business in patent low-cut shoes. The growth has come about largely through the application of an original but simple idea that has as its basis a positive suggestion to the customer. The plan may be described briefly by mentioning the case of a woman who enters the department to purchase a pair of spats. The salesman, working on the idea, gets the spats, removes the customer’s shoes and puts on her feet a pair of patent leather pumps. He had, of course, previously taken notice of the size of the customer’s foot. Having put on the patent leather shoes the salesman then adjusts the spats, dropping just a word of explanation to the effect that spats can be judged to better advantage when fitted over patent low-cuts. The result in a large percentage of cases is the sale of the patent leather shoes as well as the spats.

Illustrations without number might be mentioned to show the generous response, in the way of increased business, that follows in the path of intelligent effort. Some of these the salesman might well use, without variation, in his daily work; others he might improve to meet more closely the demands of his own trade. However, the greatest good will come to the salesman who uses these illustrations as a guide rather than as a model to be copied line for line.

An incident worth mentioning is that of a gentleman accompanied by his wife and two children who entered a shoe department to purchase a pair of canvas shoes for the lady. It was in the early spring and the family was starting off to spend some time in the country. While serving the woman the salesman noticed that the husband was wearing heavy winter shoes, and after completing the first sale he suggested a “pair of comfortable canvas shoes for all-around country use,” and mentioned that a new line had recently been received. He was then quickly on his way to select a desirable shoe, and by the time he returned the customer had half decided that he probably would be much more comfortable with a pair of light shoes. The feel of the shoe upon his foot served to complete his decision—and the sale followed. A bright remark on the salesman’s part to the effect that he could furnish “two pairs of shoes for the price of the one just bought” was an original way of suggesting shoes for the two children. It appealed to the customer and another sale was made. Furthermore, the customer was more pleased with having purchased the four pairs than he would have been with only the one he had first planned to buy.

It is out of the question to suggest that this plan or any other would produce results in every instance—every salesman knows that it would not. On the other hand, it does very clearly point out how intelligent effort on the salesman’s part can be turned into sales when properly directed to meet the needs of the individual customer.

ADVANTAGES OF AN EXTRA PAIR

There is probably not one customer in fifty who understands why it is to his advantage to be provided with an extra pair of shoes. Most customers would agree that, for the sake of variety, it would be well to have another pair so that they might alternate in wearing different shoes. But they do not realize that there is actually an advantage of money saving to be gained.

It is for the salesman to offer a definite reason for the purchase of a second pair. If the shoes are allowed to “rest” every other day or perhaps for two days after each time they are worn the wearing life will be much greater. By regularly changing off in this way, opportunity is given for the foot perspiration to dry out before it is able to cause any damaging effect upon the leather and fabric, especially that on the inside of the shoe. In addition, there is the sanitary advantage. Most people live in their shoes about sixteen hours a day and during that time subject them to a variety of conditions of cold, heat and dampness. From the standpoint of sanitation, it is as important to provide sufficient ventilation for the shoe as it is to do so for the rooms in which we live.

CLOSING THE SALE IN THE STORE

Satisfaction on the part of the customer is the basis of successful merchandising. Every wide-awake salesman and dealer realizes this fact, and makes it a part of his selling policy to insure the customer’s entire satisfaction, as far as it is humanly possible to do so. The mistake sometimes is made, in trying to please a customer, to leave an unnecessary opening for dissatisfaction. For instance, the salesman might make the remark to an undecided customer, “Take them home and if they are not just what you want, bring them back.” The suggestion is made with the best intention to serve well. But there is in it the germ of indecision which may later develop into dissatisfaction and cause the customer to return the goods when there may be no occasion for it.

The time for the salesman to complete the sale is when he has the customer before him, face to face. There are exceptions to the rule, but in general if the customer cannot decide favorably when he has the benefit of the salesman’s advice and suggestion, it is not likely that he will be able to do so later. To suggest a decision later is the salesman’s admission that he has not completed the sale. What the buyer requires is more selling effort, rather than more time so that he may think it out for himself.

Closing the sale in the store means to learn just what the objections are that are holding up the decision, and then to present selling facts so that the objections will be overcome and the sale will follow naturally. If the customer is told to work out his own salvation by deciding later, it is likely that his objections will take on greater proportions, while the advantages must fade into the background. The result then is that the goods will be returned, and either the business is lost altogether or else the effort to sell must be commenced all over again. A sale that is completed when the customer first calls is good business for the salesman. To the customer it is even more satisfying, for the reason that he is put to no inconvenience in returning the pair first bought and in selecting some other. He is also more favorably impressed with the salesman’s ability to sell and his understanding of the goods being offered.

GETTING BUSINESS FROM OUTSIDE FRIENDS

When a salesman encourages business with outside friends he is justified in his feeling that he is offering a higher quality of personal service than the friend would receive at any other store where he is unknown to the salesman. To begin with, there is a better basis of understanding between the buyer and the seller. The salesman knows quite definitely what his friend desires in style, fit, quality, and he may know his price limitations. Furthermore, there is a natural personal interest in the customer that must surely result in his receiving the maximum of service. These are advantages to be gained by the friend. The salesman has the advantage of an enlarged list of regular customers as a result of a simple announcement that he is in the shoe business and that he would like to have a call from his friends.

Along the same line may be considered the suggestion sometimes made by the salesman to the effect that “I wear this style myself.” A point such as this would carry weight with a close personal acquaintance of the salesman and would be well worth bringing out whenever necessary. However, to customers who are not personally acquainted with the salesman it would probably seem out of place, and would carry no weight in bringing about a decision. Rather than run the risk of being misunderstood it would be better for the salesman to omit, as much as possible, personal reference from his sales talk.

More and more the advantage of the telephone as a means of getting business is coming to be realized by shoe salesmen who are alive to ideas. With a list of his customers’ telephone numbers the salesman is in a position to place himself and his story before any one of them within a moment’s notice. He may have an announcement of the receipt of a new line of styles which he knows will especially appeal to the customer, or perhaps the salesman may have in stock a special-value shoe of the customer’s size that he will be interested to see. It may be an advance announcement of a sale, or any one of a dozen items of special interest to a buyer. The telephone is at the salesman’s elbow. It is as easy for him to tell his story to the customer as it is for him to “talk about the weather” to the man standing alongside of him.

“Good-morning, Mrs. Brown, this is the Progressive Shoe Store—Mr. Smith talking. You will be interested to know that we have today received our complete line of spring styles. There are two or three of the models I know will appeal to you especially.” ... “Wednesday? Very well, I’ll have them ready to show when you call.”

The customer appreciates genuine service of this kind. It requires just a moment of the salesman’s time, but produces big results in the form of increased business, and it establishes the good-will of the customer, both in the store and the salesman.

PERSONAL LETTER

It requires somewhat more time and a little extra effort on the salesman’s part to write a short, personal letter to his customers to accompany the season’s announcement. The telephone can be employed, perhaps, with less effort, but it is not always possible to make use of this means of getting in touch with customers. There are some buyers who live out of town, and others who cannot be reached by telephone—but the mails go everywhere.

The personal letter has its advantage in that it makes a more lasting impression on the customer’s mind. It is of a more permanent nature and is consequently less easily forgotten. Also it serves to get the salesman’s name before the customer in such a way that it will be remembered. It is a known fact that people remember what they read for a longer time than they do the things they hear. This is no small matter from the standpoint of the salesman, because he is continually working to single himself out from all other shoe salesmen in the mind of the customer and thus to build up a personal following of his own. A short, business-like letter will go a long way toward establishing such a relationship.

The inside display case is the shoe store’s open picture book. Almost everyone enjoys looking at pictures, which is proved by the success of the moving-picture show. Were the salesman merely to say, in suggesting an additional purchase, that he has a pretty suede pump of a new model, he could not do more than arouse a mild interest. On the other hand, if, with the aid of the display case, he is able to bring the shoe directly to the customer’s notice he at once has interest and his statements then are not mere words, but facts.

Very often the tendency is to let the show case tell its own story; to take it for granted that if the customer sees what he wants he will say so and buy it. But that, generally, is not what happens. Most people are inclined to hold back in making a decision to spend money, even though they realize their need for the goods. A word from the salesman to bridge over the gap many times is all that is required to complete the sale. Display fixtures are mechanical and have their purpose to reduce the salesman’s physical effort in showing the goods. They do not take the place of the salesman but serve as his convenience to show more and to sell more goods. It does not take a great deal of extra effort to finish off the sale of a pair of shoes with an additional sale of shoe trees, hosiery, shoe dressing or some other findings, but the business amounts to a substantial figure in the course of a month.

EXAGGERATION

Just as it is important for the salesman to develop positive, money-making ideas, it is necessary for him to guard against anything in his selling talk that will result to deaden the customer’s confidence. Lincoln very wisely said, with his original knack of expressing the point so that no one could miss it, that “you can fool all the people some of the time, you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” Ninety-nine per cent of the customers are in the class of people who may be fooled once but who make it their special business to guard against it the second time.

Exaggeration is one way of fooling the customer. There are times when a sale might be closed more quickly by stretching the truth, but the advantage to the salesman and the store cannot be lasting on such a basis. When the customer learns that he has been fooled, and in most cases he will find it out, his further business will very likely be lost forever. The customer has been given a just cause for grievance and it will be necessary to overcome his strong prejudice before he can be brought into the store again. He will never entirely forget the occurrence even though he might overlook it for the time being. Moreover, it will surely be revived in his mind at a later time upon any slight indication of what might seem to be an attempt at unfair treatment.

Exaggeration is largely a matter of habit. If the salesman allows himself to stretch a point today and he finds that it works, the chances are that he will try the same trick a second and a third time, until finally the exaggeration comes to him so naturally that he does not realize he is fooling the customer. On the other hand, it is a matter of habit also to cultivate honesty and square dealing. If the customer is given the true facts in the first place it means that there can be no come-back—that he will know what to expect of the goods he has bought and that he will respect the man who sold them, when he finds that they come up to his expectations.

FORCED SALES

Another point of importance along this general line of thought is that of guarding against forced sales. Once in a great while it may happen that a salesman does not have in stock the shoe he knows the customer should have. Perhaps the customer may have a foot of such unusual shape that it requires either a custom-made shoe or some special model not carried in stock. Even though the salesman were to force on such a man a pair of shoes that would not give him service, there could be no permanent advantage. If the customer did not later return the shoes for a claim he would probably pocket his loss with the feeling that he had been beaten.

C. A. Reynolds, president of the Keystone Leather Company, Camden, New Jersey, who, as a young man, was a retail shoe salesman, tells of an experience of his that illustrates this point. A customer entered the store, asked to be fitted, and explained that he was having considerable trouble with his feet. Upon examining the foot the young salesman (who was Mr. Reynolds) noticed that it was of such a shape and in such a condition as to require a special type of shoe that was not kept in stock. The salesman frankly explained the facts and then advised the customer where he could get the shoe he needed. The sale had been lost, but the customer was pleased because he found what he wanted in the store to which he had been directed. He returned to thank the young man for his advice. And he did more; he later brought his wife and three children to be fitted where he knew they would receive service.

It was a matter of losing one customer to gain four. The experience illustrates the difference between the short-sighted policy of “a sale at any cost,” and the true basis of selling on the foundation of service.