SELLING P.M. GOODS

PURPOSE OF THE P.M.

Among retail merchants there has in the past been a great deal of discussion concerning the advantages and disadvantages of the system of offering the salesman special premiums for the sale of certain of the goods in stock. Probably every shoe salesman knows that P.M. is an abbreviation for the term Premium Merchandise, Premium Money, or, as it is sometimes known to the salesman, “pin money.” It represents a special commission offered the salesman for the sale of certain specified goods.

In every store there is some of the stock that calls for extra effort and skill on the part of the salesman in disposing of it. The goods may be slow-selling lines, discontinued or broken styles, extreme sizes and widths, or in some instances the premium may be placed on certain grades of higher priced goods. Whatever the reason may be in the individual case, the premium is offered as an incentive to the salesman to put forth extra effort to move the P.M. stock. From the standpoint of good merchandising it is important for the retailer to turn over his stock as quickly and as often as possible for the reason, as already mentioned, that the profit is made only when the goods are sold and that capital tied up in dead stock is wasteful.

By keeping a daily record of sales according to sizes and styles, the manager is able to tell at a glance just which goods are moving and which are the “shelf-warmers.” Some stores, when it is found that a shoe has not moved within thirty or sixty days, immediately make inquiries to determine the reason. If it is found that there have been objections to the shoe, expressed by the customer, and if the management decides that these will permanently interfere with sales, the goods are at once classed as P.M.’s and arrangements are made to dispose of them promptly. The truth is that the longer goods of this kind remain in stock the more difficult it will be finally to get rid of them.

ADVANTAGES

In favor of the premium system may be mentioned the fact that it is an effective means of keeping the shelves clean, at all times, of dead stock. To the house it means a smaller profit on the sale as a result of the extra commission paid the salesman, but this is more than overbalanced by the fact that goods are being steadily kept moving and that there would result an even greater loss if they were allowed to remain in stock indefinitely.

The particular advantage to the salesman is that he is encouraged to sell goods that require on his part a higher degree of salesmanship than that called for in selling the popular lines. Then, of course, there is the evident advantage he has to increase his earnings to the extent of the premium.

DISADVANTAGES

It is not to be expected that the P.M. system has all advantages in its favor, and none of the disadvantages to offset them. Indeed, there are many retailers today who are very strongly opposed to the premium system and who will not introduce it into their own organizations, on the ground that it works against the best interests of the customer. The opposition is based on the claim that the tendency to earn the reward is so great on the part of the salesman that there is the likelihood that the customer will be prevailed upon to buy goods that are not best suited to his needs. In other words, the inexperienced salesman will have foremost in his mind the fact that a certain shoe bears a P.M., and in order to earn this for himself he will adopt the short-sighted policy of selling the shoe to the customer, even though he may know it to be the one not best suited.

If the salesman should allow himself to be influenced in this way in order to earn a small commission, it is certainly true that the premium system would be a failure. It would be a great deal better to have the dead stock on the shelves than to allow the customers to be badly served. The result would be to lose the customer, and this, of course, would be fatal to the business if the system were allowed to continue. It is from “repeat” business that the store makes its soundest profits, and it is also from “repeat” business that the salesman establishes himself as a big sales producer. He cannot afford to allow a small temporary gain in the form of a premium to stand in the way of his future development and success as a salesman.

SALESMAN’S ATTITUDE TOWARD P.M.’S

Mr. Willson of Rice & Hutchins makes the following suggestions concerning the salesman’s proper attitude toward premium goods:

In his service to the customer, the successful salesman will consider first, the customer’s interests; second, the firm’s; and finally, his own. This is the basis of true service.

As we serve, so shall we profit.

Service and not self is the basis on which the success of present-day business is built. The salesman who has set a high standard for himself will use P.M.’s in the proper way—as an incentive to learn the stock and to improve the quality of his own work. The broadest minds in the retail merchandising field will tell you that the most capable salesman will sell, first, the goods that have been in stock the longest, discontinued or broken styles and the higher grades of merchandise—whenever these goods will properly serve to satisfy the purchaser.

The P.M. system is intended as a means of stimulating the salesman’s ability to serve and to satisfy the customer. If you, as a salesman, do not plan for the steady improvement of your work day by day, you will fail, whether you are working on the P.M. system or any other system.

When properly understood by the salesman, the premium plan encourages better service, better business, better salesmen, bigger profits for the store and bigger earnings for the salesman.

RETURNS, EXCHANGES AND ADJUSTMENTS

THE CUSTOMER’S FRAME OF MIND

The responsibility of meeting and bringing about a settlement with the customer who presents a claim for adjustment, exchange or return is generally placed in the hands of the store manager or an assistant. However, this important matter will be considered here for the reason that every shoe salesman, although he may not at present be holding either of these positions, is looking forward and preparing to assume the greater responsibility. For that reason he has a special interest in this subject of complaints and adjustments.

When the customer returns to the store for the special purpose of registering a complaint concerning the goods, he sometimes has the feeling that he has been unfairly treated. He may have the suspicion that an imperfect article was intentionally sold to him because he seemed “easy.” In fact, if he thinks about it long enough, he will probably recall that when he made the purchase the salesman spent some extra time looking over the stock—and before long the customer will convince himself that the selection was made from a job lot. He may decide that he has had palmed off on him a shoe that was a “second,” and that it was done deliberately. Nothing but imagination on his part, of course, but in a great many instances these are the thoughts that go through a customer’s mind if he is dissatisfied with a shoe or if it has failed to give him proper wearing service.

He approaches the store with fire in his eye, and is all keyed-up to meet opposition. “I’m not at all satisfied with these shoes; they are imperfect and I expect you to make good,” he blurts out and expects a similar reply. “I’m obliged to you, Mr. Jones, for bringing them back so that we may get at the cause of the trouble,” is the salesman’s reply—and the customer is at once without defence. He has planned to meet opposition but finds that the salesman is with him rather than against him, and the one-sided argument has ended. The customer is then in a frame of mind to listen to reason.

A brief explanation to tell him of the special care that is exercised in the inspection of shoes is often a good means of establishing the customer’s future business on a permanent basis. Explain to him, for example, that “a rigid inspection of all shoes is made as they arrive, and never is anything allowed to go into stock when there is the slightest indication of weakness—still we cannot always tell what is underneath the surface of the leather. Of course, in cutting shoes only selected skins are used, but even with this extra precaution occasionally a weak spot is found in a skin after the shoes are worn.” These are features of service the customer receives and still in most cases he knows nothing about them. The opportunity is offered in a case of this kind to impress upon him the facts and thus to strengthen his confidence in the ability of the salesman and the store to serve him well in the future.

There is a story of an old woman who had her small savings in a bank which was reported to be in difficulties. At once she started out and appeared, bank book in hand, before the paying teller’s window.

“Have you got my money in there?” she inquired.

“Yes, madam, do you wish to withdraw it?”

“Well, if you’ve got it I won’t bother, but if you haven’t got it, I want to take it out.”

Oftentimes the circumstances are much the same with the customer who asks for permission to return goods. In general, retail merchants have found it to be the best policy to show a willingness to grant cheerfully and quickly the permission and, in a cash business, to refund the money. This is a part of the store’s service to its customers and in every instance it will make a favorable and lasting impression. When the customer is satisfied in this way it means that other purchases will shortly follow, if it is not possible to make another sale at once.

EXCHANGES

The return or exchange of any goods that have been damaged or abused, unless there is in them an imperfection, should be carefully guarded against. If the goods are imperfect and are not up to standard there is every reason for allowing the return or exchange, but there is no good reason why the store should be called upon to pocket a loss as a result of the customer’s change of mind after having used or abused the goods.

Concerning the return of goods that may be resold without loss, it is a rather general policy to permit an exchange without ceremony and to do it cheerfully and promptly. The idea behind this is that the customer has every right to change his mind regarding the purchase. The fact that he has previously been fitted and sold should in no way enter into consideration to limit the amount or quality of service offered on the exchange sale. This is another refinement of the broad business principle of giving the customer just a little more than he may be entitled to. It pays, however, for the reason that it establishes a sounder basis of business friendship and good-will.

It is clear, of course, that if the customer should show a desire to exchange a shoe for one less desirable from the standpoint of fit and comfort, the salesman would offer the benefit of his more expert knowledge by explaining the facts, without insisting.

ADJUSTMENTS

There can be no hard and fast rules laid down concerning the extent or amount that should be allowed on claims for allowances. The principal point is to meet the customer on even ground when the claim is made, and as already, mentioned, to get him in the proper frame of mind so that he will be in condition to think on a reasonable basis and without prejudice.

Frank Butterworth, store sales manager for the Regal Shoe Company, makes some practical suggestions concerning adjustments:

Our policy, like that of other progressive retailers, is that “the customer is always right.” We have confidence that the average American wants to play fair. For that reason we make it a general custom to let the customer adjust his own complaint. Experience has shown that our idea of what is a reasonable amount to be allowed on a claim is often lower than the customer’s estimate. On the other hand there are just as many cases where the actual cost of settling a claim is less when the adjustment is left to the customer. After making settlement of the claim our policy is always to resell the worn shoes to the customer. We believe that even in their unsatisfactory condition, they are worth more to the customer than to anyone else and that it is to the advantage of the customer, ourselves and the whole shoe industry to get all the use possible out of every foot of leather that goes into shoes.

TEAM WORK

Co-operation is a matter of pulling together so as to produce the best results for everyone concerned. It requires that everyone in the organization shall work as a unit for the common good of the customer, the store and each person in the store. A salesman cannot hope for results by trying to work independently of his fellow workers, the office, the management and the whole store system.

A most important feature of co-operation is that called for in cases where it is necessary to turn over a customer to some other salesman to complete the sale. It is a valuable salesman who realizes, even before the customer himself, that there is a lack of interest or confidence on the part of the customer. There are times when he should be turned over from one salesman to another. When the customer first shows any restlessness and is not just satisfied with this, that or the other style that has been shown him the salesman has his first cue. He should not wait until he has shown the entire stock of merchandise. He owes it to his team partner to leave something for him to work with.

The transferring of a customer to another salesman does not necessarily mean that the second man is more capable than the first. If the sale is completed by the turnover man it may mean simply that his manner of approach and selling talk is more to the liking of that particular customer. People have special preferences for different styles of clothes or kinds of reading. Even the best of salesmen will have their occasional difficulties due simply to the fact that their personalities or methods of selling do not harmonize with the views and preferences of the customer. As a general rule the salesman who turns business to his team partner will often find that there are just as many instances when his partner will find it necessary to do likewise. For this reason the question is not so much one of salesmanship as it is of giving the customer the kind of service that pleases him most and that secures his business.

The salesman would not be doing himself full justice if he did not make a special effort to determine for his own good whether there had been any part of his selling effort that was weak and that may have been responsible for the customer’s lack of confidence. Perhaps he had misjudged what was wanted in the matter of style or quality or perhaps he had not been positive enough in his efforts. He may have been only lukewarm with the customer who needed to be assisted in making a decision or he may have been too insistent with the man who preferred to do his own deciding. It is well for the salesman to learn these things at the time so that he will be in a position to profit by the experience and steadily improve the quality of his work. A few minutes spent in going over the circumstances with the salesman who completed the sale will be found to be well worth the time and effort from the standpoint of better business made possible through the ability to understand and serve all classes of customers.

PULLING TOGETHER WITH OTHER DEPARTMENTS

The management of the store or department may provide for team work among the salesmen but it is for the men themselves to determine the degree of success they are to have in working together. No man can be a genuine success who cannot pull together with the men around him. Friction among the men and women who make up a business organization is like friction between parts making up a machine. It results in wearing out the parts that are not working properly and it retards the work of the whole machine. Any man in the organization who tries to work alone and in disregard of the other parts of the business machine is bound to cause friction, and as a result of this he will wear himself out and limit the advancement to which he would otherwise be entitled.

The salesman should pull together with the advertising department. He should make it part of his job to study the store advertisements as soon as they appear so that he may fully understand all the selling points of the goods advertised and so that he may know exactly what the customer has in mind when he calls for a particular style or quality advertised. This is part of the salesman’s responsibility to himself and his job, provided he is serious enough about it to figure beyond the weekly pay envelope and to plan each day’s work so that it will serve as a stepping stone to the position of greater responsibility—toward success, which is the goal of every red blooded and clear thinking man and woman in business. The salesman should actually study every piece of advertising matter put out by the store, whether it be a catalogue, sales letter, newspaper announcement or window display card. The interested customer will study the ads., and surely the salesman cannot afford to do any less.

Not only should he study the advertising of his own store but he should make himself familiar with what is being done by other stores in the same line. No man, no matter how capable he may be, is beyond the point where he can profit by the experience and ideas of other men. The salesman who is alive to his responsibility and who is pulling together with other departments of the business will often be able to make valuable suggestions based upon ideas that he has gathered outside the business.

Every advancement that has ever been made in business, in science and every other branch of the world’s work, has been the result of an idea of some one who was able to look a little further ahead than the rank and file of other people around him. The salesman’s idea may be one to improve the style of advertising or it may be an idea on some improved method of stock arrangement, window display, delivering the goods, or meeting objection on the part of the customer. There are dozens of such opportunities for improvement in every business but they come only to the man who has his net out to catch them. In other words, the salesman must go half way to meet them by taking the trouble to look around with an observing eye and by thinking along the line of improvement, both for himself and the business with which he is associated. The two are so closely related that a man cannot advance the interests of the business without advancing his own interests also. An original idea is one of the most valuable things in business. The man who can produce it is the director of his future.

WORKING IN HARMONY WITH THE STORE SYSTEM

In every organization, business or otherwise where there are a number of people working together it is essential that there be provided a certain fixed method of operation to insure the best results throughout. A transaction is not complete when the salesman makes the sale. It must be followed up, for instance, with certain very important work in the office department. Records of sales and customers’ charge accounts, stock records and reports of various kinds must be prepared for the management. All these things are essential—no business can get its full share of success unless it has the benefit of correct statements concerning present conditions and results of operations in the past. The records serve the same purpose to the manager of a business as a chart of the sea serves the navigator in guiding the course of his vessel.

The salesman has a responsibility to co-operate with the office by providing a complete and correct record of every sale, exchange or return that passes through his hands. He may feel that certain of the information called for is not necessary and consequently he may disregard it in the preparation of his sales tickets. The important thing for him to remember, however, is that the work of the office begins where the salesman’s work ends. Every item of information called for is necessary and important—to supply any less means that the correctness of the office records will suffer and as a result their usefulness will be reduced. Customers’ names, their correct addresses, the address to which delivery is to be made, information concerning the billing and payment, records of the style and sizes of stock sold—all of these facts are of the greatest importance from the standpoint of the management. If the salesman fails in giving the correct information in the first place, the error will necessarily be passed along and limit, if not destroy, the usefulness of the whole record system. A moment longer spent by the salesman in preparing the ticket at the time the sale is made will give him the opportunity to get the facts, to get them correctly and to get them complete.

The store system requires of the salesman that he co-operate also with the shipping department. First of all this demands that he get the correct instructions concerning delivery and that he make it part of his job to get them down in black and white so that there can be no loop-hole for error in having the goods go astray. Anything that acts against the entire satisfaction of the customer is bound to reflect upon the salesman as well as the store. For that reason, if for no other, there is a responsibility to work hand in hand with every department, for the full satisfaction of the customer. Co-operation with the shipping or delivery department means, in addition, that the salesman shall know in a general way what is possible in the way of delivery before making a definite promise to a customer. Before giving the assurance that a package will be delivered “tomorrow morning” he should first of all know whether such a thing is practicable in view of the work already in hand. This may seem a small matter and, in fact, it is because it calls for but a small amount of extra effort on the salesman’s part to keep himself informed on such things and to guide himself accordingly. However, there is always the possibility of serious trouble and possible loss of business brought about through disappointment caused the customer as a result of unfilled promises made by a salesman at the time of the sale.

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

It is a fact generally recognized that authority and responsibility move to the man who shows himself able to assume them. What every live, progressive business organization is looking for today is the man capable of measuring-up to the big jobs—not simply the man who has been with the concern for a long while, but rather the man who has shown himself broad enough to shoulder and to carry authority. There is a vast difference between the man who is merely willing to accept a bigger position and the man who shows himself able to accept. The one may have nothing more than a vague hope, whereas the other has a burning desire and a determination to move on and up.

The salesman of purpose puts into his work the spirit of partnership—the spirit that he is working in the interests of “our” store, of which he is a part. Another man measures the extent of his service according to the idea that his effort is entirely for “their” store—and he limits his own progress accordingly. The man of purpose will naturally show that he is capable of handling authority, he will take pleasure in doing his work well and he will steadily move up to the higher plane of usefulness and responsibility. Such a man will work with the management of the business to improve conditions as he finds them. No progressive manager is so satisfied with himself and his own way of doing things that he would not welcome suggestions for improvement coming from anyone in the organization. If he is a man of experience he knows that no matter how clever he might be he could not himself hope to discover every opportunity of improving his business. For years the oil refiners of the country had been throwing away the most valuable part of the petroleum product, as produced by nature, until one day a man with a different point of view proved that millions of dollars worth of oil products were annually being carted away in the dump wagons. Now we have a hundred useful products extracted from the mass.

Every man in business today should realize the important fact that his work, no matter what the nature of it may be, is not a cut and dried process or method to be accepted and worked upon as handed down by those who preceded him. Rather, it is a responsibility and an opportunity. He should, of course, take advantage of the experience of those who have preceded him in the work, but that should be to him simply the starting point from which he may begin to develop his own ideas and improvements. When a man gets into the habit of regarding his work as an opportunity rather than a task he naturally takes a personal responsibility in developing himself and improving the quality of his work. Whatever he does will have behind it a purpose. The man will work with his eyes open to opportunities for improvement. This does not mean, however, that he will take the attitude of criticizing or fault finding, but rather the attitude of working with his fellow workers and the management for the good of all concerned.

Too often we learn of the man of ability, who because of his modesty, hesitates to make known his ideas for improvements. He perhaps has the feeling that he is not able to contribute anything that his boss does not already know, and may never come to the point of making his ideas known. In doing this, he is of course working against his own best interests and those of the business. He should get himself into the habit of airing his views on anything that has to do with the interests of the business. He should get into the habit of talking with those in authority. His first suggestion, perhaps, may not be entirely workable but he will at least have the satisfaction of knowing why, and he will be the better informed in working out his second and third suggestions. All this calls for the putting forth of some extra effort and the use of brains, but it spells the difference between the man who is able to shoulder responsibility and the one who simply follows instructions. The difference is well worth the extra effort to the man who has the faith in himself to plan definitely his success.

THE SALESMAN AS A CONSULTING EXPERT

The twentieth century is an age of specialists—men who are experts in a particular branch of important work. The time was when a man was classified as a doctor; now he is a specialist in cases having to do with the treatment of the eye, the throat, the stomach, the feet or more than a dozen other of the specialized branches into which the profession is today divided. The lawyer also is a specialist. He may be an expert in real estate law, insurance law, trade mark law, or admiralty law, but he is a specialist or expert in some one particular subject and he is in demand because he is recognized as an authority by people desiring information and advice in his particular field.

In the same way the shoe salesman should aim to make himself an expert in his field of work. He should know the subjects of correct fitting, the processes of manufacture and the special advantages of each from the standpoint of the customer, the materials used and their particular points of merit—all these things and more he should know intimately because they have a very direct bearing upon the quality and success of his selling work. When the shoe salesman places his work upon such a level that the customer may consult him for advice and suggestion concerning style, service and fit he will then find himself in the same demand and of like importance to experts in other fields of business life. The opportunity is open. Only now are the people beginning to realize the possibilities of genuine service and advice to be had in the way of correct fitting and suggestion concerning styles and qualities. The salesman who is willing to meet the demand by preparing to establish himself in his work as a consulting expert is assured of a future limited in the degree of success by nothing but the standard he sets for himself.

CONCLUSION

Accomplishment in business or in any other field of endeavor is to a large extent a state of mind. It requires first of all that the man shall have a strong, healthy determination to succeed and confidence in his ability to do so. It requires also that he shall be willing to supply himself with the necessary tools to build success, in the same way that the shoemaker provides himself with the necessary tools to make a pair of shoes.

The Training Course for Retail Shoe Salesmen is the salesman’s kit of tools with which he may build for himself success in his work. But he must learn to use the tools. In other words, he must first read the Course and secondly he must make it a part of his daily selling work to apply the principles. The suggestions made are practical and workable. They are taken from the experience of men who have succeeded and therefore they are not simply opinions but proven facts.

A man’s development is not something to be completed in a day or a week. It is a gradual process of growth. The reader will do well to refer back to this volume from time to time for the purpose of refreshing his memory on the different matters bearing upon shoe salesmanship and self development. In this way he will be in a position to determine the extent of his progress along the lines suggested and, what is still more important, he will be encouraged to renew his efforts in the knowledge of his definite progress already made toward the greater success that awaits him.